Sword Art Online
by gudiyaali16
Summary: Fate and Nanoha are stuck in the virtual reality and both have to fight their way out of that world ... Nanofate ... Sorry but i have adapted MGLN characters in SAO ... If you like it please review ... Ratings may change as well as genre ... Enjoy.
1. Chapter 1

OKAY SO I WATCHED SAO SWORD ART ONLINE AND WANTED TO WRITE IT WITH THE CHARACTERS OF MGLN . SO SORRY IF ANYONE THINKS I SHOULD NOT HAVE DONE THAT BUT I DO NOT OWN SAO OR MGLN.

AGAIN I DO NOT OWN MGLN OR SAO…

Chapter 1

A grey sword cut my shoulder.

The thin line at the top left corner of my field of vision reduced slightly. At the same time a cold hand passed over my heart.

The blue line—called the "HP bar"—is a visual rendering of my life force. There was still a little over 80 percent left. No, this phrase isn't appropriate enough. Right now, I was about 20 percent closer to death.

I dashed backwards before the enemy's sword even began its attacking motion.

"Haaa…"

I forced a huge breath to steady myself. The «body» in this world didn't need oxygen; but the body on the other side, or rather the body lying down in the real world, would be breathing heavily. My limp hands would be soaked with sweat, and my heartbeat would be off the charts.

Of course.

Even if everything that I see right now is nothing more than a rendering of a 3D virtual reality, and the bar being reduced was nothing more than a bunch of numbers that showed my hit points, the fact that I was fighting for my life didn't change.

When you think about it like that, this fight is extremely unfair. That's because the «enemy» in front of me — a humanoid with dully shining arms covered in dark green scales along with a lizard's head and tail—was not a human, nor was it really alive. It was a digital lump that the system would replace however many times it was killed.

—No.

The AI that moved the lizardman was studying my movements and enhancing its ability to respond to them with every second that passed. However, the moment that this unit was destroyed, the data was reset and it did not pass on to the unit that would be regenerated in this area.

So in a sense, this lizardman was also alive — A single being unique to this world.

"…right?"

There was no way that it would have understood the word that I had muttered to myself, but the lizardman — a level 82 monster called «Lizardman Lord» — hissed and smiled, showing the sharp fangs that sprung from its long jaw.

It's reality. Everything in this world is real. There's no virtual reality or any fakes of any kind.

I shifted the one-handed longsword in my right hand parallel to the middle of my body and watched the enemy.

The lizardman moved the buckler in his left hand forward and pulled the scimitar to his right back.

A chill breeze blew into the shadowed dungeon and the flame on the torch shook. The wet floor softly reflected the flickering torch-light.

"Kraaah!"

With a tremendous scream, the lizardman leapt. The scimitar drew a sharp arc as it flew towards me. A blinding orange light lit its trajectory; a high-class one-hit sword skill of the curved sword «Fell Crescent». It was a formidable charge-type sword skill that covered a distance of 4 meters in 0.4 seconds.

But, I was already expecting the attack.

I had slowly increased the distance in order to induce the AI to create this situation. I closed in on the lizardman, my mind registering the burning smell that the scimitar left behind as it sliced through the air centimeters in front of my nose.

"…ha!"

With a short shout, I swung the sword horizontally. The sword, now covered with a sky-blue light effect, cut through the thinly protected stomach and bright red light was scattered instead of blood. There was a low scream.

However, my sword didn't stop. The system assisted me through the programmed movements and chained the next slash with a speed that would have normally been impossible.

This is the most important element in battles in this world: «Sword Skill».

The sword sped off right from left and cut into the lizardman's chest. In this state, I spun my body in a full circle and the third strike stuck the enemy more deeply than before.

"Raarrgh!"

As soon as the lizardman recovered from the brief stun-state, after failing to hit with a big skill, it screamed with rage or perhaps fear, and raised its scimitar high up into the air.

But my chain had not ended. The sword that had been swinging right suddenly sprang, as if forced by a spring, left and up and hit its heart—a critical point.

The sky-blue rhombus drawn by my four consecutive hits flashed then scattered — A horizontal consecutive 4 hit skill, «Horizontal Square».

The clear light shone strongly in the dungeon and then faded. At the same time, the HP bar above the Lizardman's head disappeared without even a single dot left.

The huge body fell, leaving a long trail, then suddenly stopped awkwardly—

With a sound similar to breaking glass, it broke down into infinite polygons and disappeared.

This is the «Death» of this world. It is instantaneous and short, a perfect destruction, not leaving even a single trace.

I glanced at the virtual experience points and drop items I received that appeared in purple font in the center of my vision and swung my sword right and left before sheathing it in the scabbard on my back. I walked backward a few steps and slid slowly down with my back against the dungeon wall.

I spat out the breath I was holding and closed my eyes. My temple started throbbing, perhaps from the fatigue from the long fight. I shook my head a couple of times to get rid of the pain and opened my eyes.

The shining clock at the bottom right of my field of vision showed that it was already past 3PM. I should get out of the labyrinth or I won't make it to the city before dark.

"…should I get started?"

There was nobody here to listen, but I just said that and slowly got up.

I was done with making progress for the day. I somehow escaped the hand of death again today. But after a brief rest, tomorrow will come with more battles. When fighting battles without a 100% chance of victory, however many safety nets you prepare, there's going to be a day when you fall out of lady luck's favor.

The problem is if this game will be «cleared» or not, before I draw the ace of spades.

If you value your life above all else, staying in a village and waiting for somebody else to clear the game is the wisest route to take. But I go to the front lines every day solo. Am I just simply an addict of VRMMO who keeps increasing her stats through countless battles, or—

Am I an idiot who insolently believes that she can win the freedom of everyone in this world with her sword?

As I started walking towards the labyrinth entrance with a slight smile of self-scorn, I thought back to that day.

Two years ago.

The moment that everything ended, and began.

"Ahh… ha… uwahh!"

The sword, swinging to these strange shouts, swished around cutting nothing but air.

Right afterwards, the blue boar, which moved surprisingly quick considering its bulk, charged fiercely at its assailant. I burst into laughter after watching her fly through the air after getting hit by the boar's flat nose and roll on the hill.

"Hahaha…not like that. The first movement is important, Hayate."

"Argh…that bastard."

The complaining assailant, a party member called Hayate, got up and glanced at me while answering plaintively.

"But Fate, even if you say that… I can't do anything about the fact that it's moving."

I met this person, who had brown held up by a bandana and simple leather armor worn over her thin body, a few hours ago. If she had revealed her real name, it would have been hard to omit the honorifics, but her name Cline and mine Fate were both names we had made up for our characters. Putting "-san" or "-chan" at the end of them would sound comical more than anything.

The legs of the person in question started shaking.

Seems like she's a little dizzy.

I picked up a pebble from the undergrowth at my feet and raised it above my shoulder. As soon as the system detected the first motion of a sword skill, the pebble started giving off a slight yellow light.

After that, my left hand almost moved by itself and the pebble went flying, drawing a straight line of light and hitting the boar between its eyebrows. Ggiik! The boar squealed in fury and turned towards me.

"Of course they move. They're not training dummies. But if you start the right motion, the system will put your sword skill into motion and hit the target for you."

"Motion…motion…"

While muttering this like some spell, Hayate raised the cutlass that she had in her right hand.

Although the blue boar, officially named «Frenzy Boar» was a level one monster, Hayate had had almost half of her HP reduced while getting hit by counterattacks due to her wild swings. Well, even if she died she'd just respawn at the «Starting City» near here, but coming all the way out to this hunting ground again was somewhat annoying.

It seemed like there was one move left before the fight reached its conclusion.

I cocked my head as I blocked the boar's charge with the sword in my right hand.

"Hmm, how should I explain… It's not like one, two, three then strike, but more like gathering a bit of energy and then. as soon as you feel the skill start, it goes BAM and you feel it hit the monster…"

"Bam, eh?"

Hayate's beautiful face grimaced itself into an unsightly image as she leveled her sword with the middle of her body.

Breathe in, and out; after taking a deep breath, she lowered her pose and raised her sword as if she was going to shoulder it. This time, the system sensed the pose correctly and the arcing sword slowly started shining orange.

"Ha!"

With her low yell, she jumped off the ground with a movement that was completely different to the ones before. Swish-! With this crisp sound, the sword drew its cloud white trajectory through the air. The «Reaver», a basic skill of the one handed curved sword, struck the boar right in its neck as it was about to charge and got rid of the rest of its HP, which, like Hayate's, was about half full.

Guekk— it screamed a pitiful cry and its large body shattered like glass and purple numbers appeared, showing how much virtual experience points I gained.

"Yeeeeaaaahhh!"

Hayate took an overstated pose of victory with a huge smile on her face and raised her left hand. I high-fived her and smiled again.

"Congrats on your first victory…but that boar — it's about as hard as slimes from other games."

"Eh, really? I thought it was some sort of semi-boss or something!"

"No chance of that."

My smile became a little forced as I sheathed my sword on my back.

Even though I was teasing her, I understood what she was feeling right now. Since I had two more months of experience than her, it was only now that she could feel the exhilarating feeling of destroying her enemy by her own hand.

Hayte started to use the same sword skill over and over again yelling as she did so, perhaps as a way of practicing. I left her alone and looked around.

The endlessly stretching plains gave off a beautiful red as the sun had started setting. Way up north, there was the silhouette of a forest, a sparkling lake down south, and I could just about make out the walls that surrounded the city to the east. To the west, there was a limitless sky going on forever with bunches of golden clouds drifting by.

We were at the plains that stretched to the west of the «Starting City», which was situated at the north end of the first floor of the colossal floating castle—«Mid chlida». There should be numerous players fighting monsters around here; but because of the enormous size, none of them were visible.

Seeming finally satisfied, Hayate sheathed her sword and walked over while observing the area as well.

"But really…however many times I look around like this, I still can't believe that this is «inside the game»."

"Well even if you say 'inside' it's not like our souls were sucked in or anything. Our brain's just seeing and listening instead of our eyes and ears…with the signals that the «Nerve Gear» is sending."

I said while shrugging. Hayate pouted her lips like a kid.

"You might be used to it now, but for me it's the first time doing a «FullDive»! Isn't it awesome? Really…it's a relief that I was born in this era!"

"You're exaggerating."

But as I laughed, I totally agreed with her.

«Nerve Gear».

That's the name of the hardware that moved this VRMMORPG—«Sword Art Online».

The basic structure of this machine is totally different from the older ones.

Unlike the old-style man-machine interface hardware like "flat screen monitors" or "controllers that you used with your hands," Nerve Gear only had a single interface, a streamlined interface that covered the whole of your head and face.

Inside, there were numerous signal components, and by using the numerous electronic signals these sent, the gear accessed the user's brain itself. The user didn't use their eyes or ears to see and listen, but took in the signals that were sent directly to their brain. In addition, the machine could access not only sight and sound, but also touch, taste, and smell as well—that is to say, all five senses.

After slipping the Nerve Gear on and locking the strap on your chin in place and saying the initiation command «Link Start», all noise fades away and you're swathed in darkness. As soon as you pass the rainbow colored circle in the middle, you're in another world made entirely out of data.

So,

Half a year ago, this machine, which started selling in May, 2022, successfully created a «Virtual Reality». The electronics company which created the Nerve Gear called the actual act of linking to the virtual reality—

«FullDive».

It was a total seclusion from reality, fitting of the word "full."

The reason for this is that the Nerve Gear not only sent fake signals to the five senses—but also blocked and rerouted the orders that the brain sent to the body.

This can be called the most basic requirement for moving freely in a virtual reality. If the body received the brain's signals when the user was in FullDive, the moment the user decided they wanted to «run» their actual body would run into a wall.

Because the Nerve Gear could reroute the commands the brain sent through the spinal cord, Hayate and I could both move our avatars around freely and swing our swords around.

We've completely leapt into the game.

The effect of this experience captivated me and many gamers such as myself to the point where we were sure that we could never go back to the old touch-pens or motion sensors.

Hayate was staring at the wind passing through the plains and the castle walls off in the distance with actual tears in her eyes.

"So SAO is the first game for the Nerve Gear that you've played?" I asked.

Hayate, looking like a calmly beautiful and dashing warrior from the Sengoku period, turned her head my way and nodded.

"Yeah."

If she put a serious expression on her face, she had an impressive bearing about her worthy of an actor from a historical play. Of course, this was different from her actual body in the real world. It was an avatar made out of nothing from adjusting a bunch of options.

Of course, I looked like some ridiculously handsome protagonist from some fantasy animation as well.

Hayate continued in her low vigorous voice, which, of course, was different from her real voice as well.

"Well, to be exact, I sorta bought the hardware in a rush after I managed to get my hands on SAO. There was only ten thousand in the first batch. So I suppose I was really lucky. …well, if I think about it you were ten times luckier when you got picked for beta testing. They only picked a thousand!"

"An, yeah, I suppose."

Hayate kept staring at me. I unconsciously scratched my head.

I remembered the excitement and enthusiasm that «Sword Art Online» created when it was announced through the media like it was yesterday.

Nerve Gear had realized the future setting for gaming with FullDive. However, due to the innovation of the actual machine, only unremarkable titles came forth for the all-important software. They were all puzzles, education related or environmental type games, calling forth discontent from game addicts such as myself.

Nerve Gear can truthfully render a virtual reality.

But you could only walk 100 meters before you hit a wall in that world; it was really a huge letdown. That hardcore gamers such as myself, who had been deeply absorbed with the experience of being within the game, had started waiting for a certain game genre was almost unavoidable.

We had started waiting for a network response game—a sort that let millions of players log in and raise, fight with and live as a character of their own, that is to say—a MMORPG.

When the anticipation and craving reached its limit, the first VRMMORPG was announced just in time, «Sword Art Online». The stage for the game is a floating castle consisting of 100 floors.

The players lived in a world with forests and lakes, relying on only their sword and drive to discover the route to the upper floors and defeat countless monsters and make their way endlessly to the top.

«Magic» which was considered to be an indispensable part of fantasy MMORPGs had been boldly cut out and an almost endless number of skills called «Sword Skills» were made. It was part of a plan to let players actually feel the experience of fighting with their own bodies through FullDive as much as possible.

Skills were varied including productive skills such as smithery, leather working and sewing, and everyday skills such as fishing, cooking and playing music, allowing the player to not only adventure the huge game but also actually «live» in it. If they so wanted, and if their skill levels were high enough, they could buy a house and live as shepherds.

As the information steadily kept being revealed, the gamers' enthusiasm only got higher.

The beta test only recruited a thousand testers; it's said that one hundred thousand people, the number of half the Nerve Gear sold at that time, volunteered to be a tester. Luck was the only reason that I got through the narrow gap and was picked. Also, beta testers received the additional benefit of being given the priority when the game officially came out.

The two months of beta testing was like a dream. At school, I thought endlessly of my skill set, equipment and items, and ran all the way to my house as soon as school ended and dived till dawn. The beta test ended in the blink of an eye, and on the day my character was reset, I felt a sense of loss as if half of my actual self had been cut away.

And now—November 6, 2022, Sunday.

«Sword Art Online» after all the preparations had been finished and at 1PM officially started its server service.

Of course, I had been waiting for 30 minutes and then logged on without even a second delay, but when I checked the state of the server over ninety-five hundred people had already logged on. It seemed as if all of the people who had been lucky enough to get their hands on the game had felt the same as I did. All the online shopping sites announced that the game was sold out seconds after it had gone on sale and the offline sales, which had started yesterday, had created lines of people who had queued up for four days, creating enough of a racket to go on the news. That meant that all the people who had been able to buy a copy of the game were almost all serious game addicts.

The actions of Hayate showed this clearly as well.

After I had logged onto SAO, I started running through the nostalgic stone paved roads of the «Starting City» to go to the weapons shop. Realizing that I was a beta tester after seeing me start and dashing without any hesitation, Hayate ran over.

"Hey, teach me a few things!" she'd begged.

I wondered how she could be so shameless and demanding to a person she hadn't met before. Being so lost for words that it was almost amazement.

"Ah, er, then…why don't we go to the weapon shop?" I answered like some NPC; we then ended up making a party, and I began teaching her some basics of fighting—and that's how we ended up in this current situation.

To tell the truth, I didn't get along with people in real life or in games, perhaps even less so than in real life. During beta testing, I came to know a couple of people, but I didn't get close enough to anyone to actually call them a friend.

But Hayate had a side to her that grows on you, and I didn't find this uncomfortable either. Thinking that I might be able to get along with her, I opened my mouth.

"So…what do you want to do? Do you want to keep hunting till you get used to it?"

"Sure! …is what I want to say, but…"

Hayate's delicate eyes looked at the bottom right of her vision. She must have been checking the time.

"…well, I should log off and eat. I ordered some pizza for 5:30."

"Pretty thorough."

I said at a loss for words, Hayate spread her chest.

"Of course!" she said proudly. "I promised to meet some friends at the «Starting City» in a bit. I could introduce you to some of them and you could register them as friends. That way you would always send messages. How about it?"

"Errr… Hmmm…," I mumbled subconsciously.

I got along with Hayate pretty well, but there was no guarantee that it'd be the same for her friends. I felt like that there would be a higher chance of not getting along with them and as a result, fall out with Hayate as well.

"Should I…?"

Seemingly understanding the reason for my not-so-confident answer, Hayate shook her head.

"Ah, I don't mean to force you. There'll be a chance to introduce them sometime anyway."

"…yeah. Sorry, and thanks."

As soon as I thanked her, Hayate shook her head vigorously.

"Hey, hey! I should be the one thanking you. I received a lot of help from you. I'll pay you back sometime soon. Mentally."

Hayate smiled and took another look at the clock.

"…well, I'll log off for a bit. Thanks a lot, Fate. Be seeing ya."

With that,s he put her hand forward. At that moment, I thought this person would have been a great leader in «another game» and shook her hand.

"Yeah, see you around."

We let go of each other's hand.

That was the point where Aincrad, or Sword Art Online, stopped being just some fun game for me.

Cline stepped back a bit and put her right index finger and thumb together and pulled downwards. This was the action that was done to call the «main menu window». Straight afterwards, there was a ringing sound and a shining purple rectangle appeared.

I moved a bit and sat on a rock and opened my menu too. I started to move my fingers to organize the items that I'd gotten after fighting with the boar.

Then.

"Eh?" Hayate said in a strange tone.

"What's this? …there's no log out button."

At that, I stopped moving my fingers and raised my head.

"No button…? No way, look a bit closer."

I said a bit confused. The swordswoman opened her eyes wide beneath the bandana and pushed her head closer to the menu. The rectangle, which was longer sideways than high, had a bunch of buttons on the left and a silhouette showing what equipment you had on on the right. At the bottom of the menu, there was a «LOG OUT» button that allowed you to escape from this world.

As I was turning my head to the item list that listed the items that I had gained over hours of fighting, Cline started speaking in an unusually high voice.

"It's really not there. You take a look Fate."

"I told you that there's no way that it's not there…" I muttered with a sigh as I clicked on the button on the top left to go back to the menu screen.

The inventory window on the right closed and it went back to the main screen. At the left of the silhouette, which still had quite a lot of empty spaces, there was a long row of buttons.

I moved my hand down in a movement that had almost become a habit and—

My body froze.

It wasn't here.

As Hayate had said, the button that had been there during the beta test—no, even right after I'd logged on—had disappeared.

I stared at the empty space for a couple of seconds, then looked through the menu, making sure that it hadn't just changed its position. Hayate looked up with "Right?" written on her face.

"…not there, right?"

"Yeah, it's not there."

I nodded, although it felt slightly annoying to agree so easily. Hayate smiled and started rubbing her thin chin.

"Well, it's the first day so these sort of bugs could occur. Around about now, the GMs should be crying by now from the amount of messages flooding in," Hayate said calmly.

"Is it alright for you to stand around like that? You said that you ordered some pizza, didn't you?" I asked teasingly.

"Ah, that's right!"

I smiled as I watched her jump around, her eyes wide.

I threw away a couple of items I didn't need from the inventory, which had turned red due to having too many items inside, and then walked over to Hayate.

"Argh! My anchovy pizza and ginger ale-!"

"Why don't you call a GM? They might cut you off from their side."

"I tried, but there's no response. It's already 5:25! Hey, Fate! Isn't there some other way to log out?" After listening to what Hayate said while waving both of her arms—

My face became rigid. I felt a groundless fear send a chill down my back.

"Let's see…to log out…" I said while thinking.

To get out of this virtual reality and back to my room, I have to open the main menu, press the log out button and press yes on the window that popped up on the right. It was pretty simple. But—at the same time, apart from the procedure above I wasn't aware of any other way of logging off.

I looked up at Hayte's face, which was situated quite a bit higher than my own, and shook my head.

"No…there's none. If you want to log out yourself you have to use the menu, apart from that, there's no other way."

"That's impossible…there's got to be something!"

Hayate suddenly starting shouting as if she was denying my statement.

"Return! Log out! Escape!"

But of course, nothing happened. There were no voice commands on SAO of that description.

After shouting this and that and even jumping, I spoke to Hayate.

"Hayate, it's useless. Even the manual doesn't have anything on emergency access terminations."

"But…this is just stupid! Even if it's a bug, I can't even go back to my room and my body when I want to!" Hayate shouted with a bewildered expression on her face.

I totally agreed with her.

This was impossible. It was complete nonsense. But it was indisputably the truth.

"Hey…what is this? It's really just weird. Right now, we can't get out of this game!"

Hayate gave out a desperate laugh then quickly started talking again.

"Wait, we can just turn the power off. Or just pull the «Gear» off."

As I watched Hayate move her hands, as if she was trying to take off some invisible hat, I felt the anxiety returning.

"That's impossible, both of them. Right now, we can't move our bodies…our real bodies. The «Nerve Gear» receives all the signals that our brain is sending here…" I tapped the back of my head. "… and reroutes them to move our avatars here."

Hayate slowly closed her mouth and put her hands down.

We both stood speechless for a while, each lost in thought.

To attain the FullDive state, the Nerve Gear blocks the signals that our brain sends down our spines and changes them so that we can control our avatars in this world. So however wildly we swing our arm about here, the arm of my real body, which was lying on my bed right now, wouldn't move an inch, ensuring that I wouldn't hit my head against the corner of my table or anything.

But because of this function, we can't cancel the FullDive of our own free will right now.

"…so unless the bug is fixed or somebody in the real world takes the Gear off, we have to wait it out?" Hayate mumbled, still a little dazed.

I silently signaled my agreement.

"But I live by myself. You?"

I hesitated slightly but told him the truth.

"…I live with my mom and my older sister, a family of three. I think that I'll be forced out of Dive if I don't come down for dinner…"

"What? H-How old is your sister?"

Hayate suddenly looked at me, her eyes sparkling. I pushed her head away.

"You're pretty calm right now, aren't you? She's part of the sports club and hates games, so she's got nothing in common with people like us…but more than that," I spread my right arm in an attempt to change the subject. "Don't you think it's weird?"

"Well sure. Since it's a bug."

"No, I mean it's not just a bug, it's an «impossible to log out» bug, it's a big enough problem to bother the operation of the game itself. Like your pizza in the real world is getting colder every second, it's an actual economical loss, isn't it?"

"…a cold pizza…it's as meaningless as hard natto!"

I ignored these meaningless comments and kept talking.

"If it's like this, the operators should put the server down and log everyone out whatever the case. But…it's already been 15 minutes since we've noticed this, but there hasn't even been a system message, let alone putting the server down; it's just too weird."

"Hmm, now that I think of it, you're right."

Now Hayate started rubbing her chin with a serious expression on her face. In the area beneath the bandana, which covered a little bit of her sharp nose, intelligence sparkled in her eyes.

I started listening to Hayate, feeling a little strange about talking with someone whom I'd never meet if I erased my account.

"…the company which created SAO, «Argas», is a company that's famous for being considerate about its users, isn't it? That's why everyone was fighting to get their hands on a copy even though it's the first online game. It's sorta meaningless if they screw up like this on their first day."

"I agree, and SAO is the first VRMMORPG. If something goes wrong now they might put down regulations for the genre itself."

Hayate and I looked at each other's virtual faces and sighed.

Aincrad's seasons were based on reality, so it was early fall here as well.

I looked up, sucking in the virtual air, taking a deep, cold breath.

100 meters away, I could just about see the light purple bottom of the 2nd floor. As I followed the uneven surface, I saw the huge tower—the «labyrinth» that was the path to the upper floor—and saw that it was connected to the outer entrance.

It was just past 5:30 and the small strip of sky that could be seen was red with the light of the sunset. Despite the situation I was in, seeing the endless plains painted gold with the light of the evening sun, I found myself speechless in front of the beauty of this virtual world.

Right after that.

The world changed forever.

Ding, ding, a chiming noise like a bell, or perhaps a warning bell, sounded loudly, making Hayate and me jump in surprise.

"Ah..."

"What's this!?"

We shouted at the same time and stared at each other, both of our eyes wide.

Both Hayate and I were immersed in a clear blue pillar of light. Past the blue veil, the plains in my vision blurred steadily.

I've experienced this a few times during beta testing. It was a «Teleport» initiated by an item. I didn't have the prerequisite item nor did I shout the proper command. Did the operators initiate a forced teleport? If so, why didn't they even inform us?

As my thoughts raced, the light around me pulsed stronger and darkness overtook me.

As the blue light faded, my surroundings became clear again. However, this wasn't the plains lit with the sunset anymore.

A large road paved with stone. Medieval streets surrounded by street-lamps and the huge palace radiating a dark light a fair distance away up ahead.

This was the starting point, the central plaza of the «Starting City».

I looked at Hayate who had her mouth wide open next to me. Then at the bustling layers of people that surrounded the two of us.

Looking at the bunch of stunningly beautiful people with a variety of equipment and different hair colors, they were no doubt other players like me. There were about a few thousand—ten thousand people here. It was likely that everyone who was logged on right now had been forcefully transported to the central plaza.

For a few seconds, everyone just looked around without a word.

Then a few mumbles and mutters could be heard here and there; it started to get louder.

"What's happening?"

"Can we log out now?"

"Can't they take care of it quickly?"

Comments like these could be heard from time to time.

As the players started to get more annoyed, shouts like "Is this a joke?" and "Get the hell out here, GMs!" could be heard.

Then suddenly.

Somebody raised his voice above all these comments and shouted.

"Ah...look above!"

Hayate and I almost automatically turned our eyes upward and looked. There, a strange sight greeted us.

The bottom surface of the second floor, one hundred meters up in the air, was checkered in red.

When I looked closely, I could make out that they were made up of two phrases crisscrossing each other. The word that was written in red was [Warning] and the other [System Announcement].

I was surprised for a moment but then thought Oh, the operator's going to begin informing us now and loosened my shoulders a little bit. The chatter died down in the plaza and you could feel everyone waiting to hear what was going to be said.

However, what happened next wasn't what I had expected.

From the middle of the pattern, a liquid similar to blood started oozing down slowly. It came down at a rate that almost emphasized how viscid it was; but it didn't fall down; instead, it started morphing into another shape.

What appeared was a twenty meter tall man with a hooded robe draped around him.

No, that wasn't exactly right. From where we were looking, we could easily see into the hood—there was no face. It was absolutely empty. We could clearly see the inner cloth and the green embroidery inside of the hood. It was the same inside the robe; all we could see inside the rim were shadows.

I've seen the actual robe before. It was the clothes that the Agas employees who had been working as GMs during the beta test had always worn. But then the male GMs had had a face like an old sorcerer with a long beard and the females had had an avatar of a bespectacled girl. They might have used the robe due to lack of time to prepare a proper avatar, but the empty space beneath the hood gave me an unexplainable feeling of anxiety.

The countless players around me must have felt the same.

"Is that a GM?"

"Why doesn't it have a face?"

Numerous whispers like these could be heard.

Then the right hand of the huge robe moved as if to silence them.

A pure white glove appeared from the folds of the long sleeve. But this sleeve, like the rest of the robe, wasn't connected to any sort of body.

Then the left arm slowly lifted upwards, too. Then with its two empty gloves spread out in front of ten thousand players, the faceless person opened his mouth—no, it felt like it did. Then a low and calm voice of a male resonated from high up in the air.

'Players, I welcome you all to my world.'

I couldn't understand it right away.

«My world»? If that red robe was a GM, it certainly had godlike powers in this world, enabling him to change the world at will, but why was he pointing that out now?

Hayate and I looked at each other dumbfounded. The anonymous red robe lowered its two arms and continued talking.

'My name is Jail Scaglatteia. Right now, I am the only person who can control this world.'

"What...!?"

My avatar became rigid with shock, and its throat, and perhaps my neck back in the real world as well, stopped working for a second.

Jail—Scaglatteia!

I knew that name. There was no way I didn't.

This person, who was both a game designer and a genius in the field of quantum physics, was the one responsible for raising Agas, which even a few years ago was just one of many small companies, into one of the leading companies in the field.

He was also the development director of SAO and, at the same time, the designer of the Nerve Gear.

As a hardcore gamer, I respected Jail deeply. I bought all the mags that featured him and had read his few interviews until I almost knew them all by heart. I could almost see him in the white overalls he always wore by just hearing his voice.

But he had always stood behind the scenes, refusing to be exposed to the media; he had never even been a GM—so why was he doing something like this?

I forced my mind to start moving again in order to make sense of the situation. But the words that came out of the empty hood almost seemed to mock my efforts to understand.

'I think that most of you have discovered the fact that the log out button has disappeared from the main menu. This is not a bug; it is all part of «Sword Art Online»'s system.'

"Part of...the system?"

Hayate muttered; her voice breaking up. The announcement continued in its low voice as if to cover the sound.

'Until you get to the top of this castle, you cannot log out of your own free will.'

This castle? I couldn't understand this phrase at first. There's no castle in the «Starting City».

Then the next thing that Jail said blew my confusion away.

'...also, the discontinuation or dismantling of the Nerve Gear from the outside is strictly forbidden. If these things are attempted...'

A moment of silence.

The silence of ten thousand people was overwhelming. The next words came slowly.

'The signal sensors in your Nerve Gear will emit a strong electromagnetic pulse, destroying your brain and stopping all of your basic functions.'

Hayate and I stared at each other for seconds in shock.

It was as if my mind was refusing to believe what had just been said. But Jail's short statement pierced through my body with a ferocity that was both hard and dense.

Destroy our brains.

In other words, kill us.

Any user that turned the Nerve Gear off or unlocked the clasp and took it off would be killed. That is what jail had just stated.

People in the crowd started muttering, but there was no one shouting or panicking. It was either that everyone, like me, couldn't understand it yet, or refused to.

Hayate raised her right hand slowly and tried to grasp the headgear that would be situated there in the real world. As she did this, she let out a dry laugh and started talking.

"Haha...what's he saying? That man, has he gone nuts? He's not making any sense. The Nerve Gear... It's just a game. Destroy our brain... How is he going to do that? Right Fate?"

Her voice broke at the last shout. Hayate stared at me hard, but I couldn't nod in agreement.

The infinite signal sensors in the Nerve Gear's helmet emitted small electronic pulses to send virtual signals to the brain.

They might call this the newest ultra technology, but the basic theory was the same as a certain household appliance that's been used for over 40 years in Japan—the microwave.

If there was sufficient output, it was possible that the Nerve Gear would vibrate the water particles in our brains and fry it with the heat from the friction. But...

"...theoretically it's possible, but...he must be bluffing. Because if we pull the plug on the Nerve Gear, there's no way it can emit that sort of a strong pulse. Unless there's some form of battery with a huge storage capability...inside..."

Hayate already guessed the reason why I had stopped talking.

"There...is one," she said, her words almost a scream with a hollow expression on her face. "Thirty percent of the gear's weight is in the battery. But...that's totally crazy! What if there was a sudden power outage or something!?"

Jail started explaining, as if he had heard what Hayate had shouted.

'To be a little more specific, dislocation from an outside source of electricity for ten minutes, being cut off from the system for more than two hours, or any attempt to unlock, dismantle, or destroy the Nerve Gear. If any of these conditions are met, the brain destruction sequence will start. These conditions have been made known to the government and the public through mass-media in the outside world. On that note, there have been several cases where the relatives or friends have ignored the warnings and tried to forcefully get rid of the Nerve Gear. The result—'

The metallic voice took a short breath here.

'—regretfully 213 players have already exited this game, and the real world forever.'

A long, thin scream was heard. But most of the players couldn't believe it, or refused to believe what they had been told and just stood there slack-jawed, or with a wry smile on their faces.

My head tried to reject what Jail had just said. But my body betrayed it and my knees started shaking violently.

I stumbled back a few paces on my weak knees and managed to keep myself from falling. Hayate fell on her backside; her expression lifeless.

213 players have already.

This phrase replayed over and over again in my head.

If what Jail said was true-over 200 people have already died up to now?

Among them, there would have been beta testers such as me. I might have even known some of their character names and avatars. These people had had their brains burnt and...died; is this what Jail was saying?

"...don't believe it... I don't believe it."

Hayate, who was still sitting on the floor, started talking in a strained voice.

"He's just trying to scare us. How would he do such a thing? Stop kidding around and let us out. We don't have time to play along to your sick opening ceremony. Yeah...this is all just an event. An opening show, right?"

Inside my head, I was screaming the same thing.

But as if to dismiss our hopes, Jail's business like voice restarted its explanation.

'Players, there is no need to worry about the bodies that you have left on the other side. As of this moment, all TV, radio, and internet media are all repeatedly reporting this situation, including the fact that there have been numerous deaths. The danger of having your Nerve Gear taken off has already all but disappeared. In a moment, using the two hours I have given, all of you will be transported to hospitals or similar institutes and be given the best treatment. So you can relax...and concentrate on beating the game.'

"What...?"

Then, at last my mouth started shouting violently.

"What are you saying!? Beat the game!? You want us to play around in a situation like this!?"

I kept shouting, glaring at the red robe that had seeped out of the surface of the upper floor.

"This isn't a game anymore!"

Then Jail Scaglatteia started announcing silently with his monotonous voice.

'But I ask of you all to understand that «Sword Art Online» is no longer a simple game. It is a second reality...from now on, any form of revival in the game will no longer work. The moment that your HP reaches 0, your avatar will be gone forever, and at the same time—'

I could guess what he was going to say all too clearly.

'Your brain will be destroyed by the Nerve Gear.'

Suddenly, an urge to laugh out loud bubbled up from the bottom of my stomach. I drove it down.

A long horizontal line was shining at the top left corner of my vision. As I focused on it, the numbers 342/342 overlaid it.

Hit points. My life-force.

The moment it reaches zero, I will die—the electromagnetic waves will fry my brain, killing me instantaneously. This is what Jail had said.

This is without a doubt a game, a game with your life at stake. In other words, a death game.

I must have died at least 100 times during the two months of beta testing. I had respawned with a slightly embarrassed smile on my face in the palace at the north of the main plaza, the «Black Iron Palace», and ran off into the hunting grounds again.

That was what an RPG was, a sort of game where you keep dying and learning and leveling up. But now you can't? Once you die, you'll lose your life? And in addition—you can't even stop playing?

"...no freaking way," I muttered softly.

Who in their right mind would go out onto the field with those conditions? Of course everyone would just stay inside the city where it was safe.

Then as if reading my, and maybe all the other players', mind, the next message was given.

'Players, there is only one way to be freed from this game. As I have said before, you must get to the top of Aincrad, the one hundredth floor, and defeat the final boss that resides there. All players still alive at that time will be immediately logged out of the game. I give you all my word.'

Ten thousand players stood in silence.

It was then that I realized what Jail had meant when he had said «get to the top of this castle».

This castle—meant the huge monstrosity that had imprisoned all of the players on the first floor with ninety nine more floors stacked on top of the others, towering into the sky while floating in it. He was talking about Mid childa itself.

"Clear...all 100 floors!?" Hayate suddenly shouted. She got up quickly and raised a fist up to the sky.

"And how do you want us to do that? I heard that getting up was crazy hard even during the beta testing!"

This was true. During the two months of beta testing, the one thousand players that had taken part had only managed to get to the sixth floor. Even if ten thousand people had dived right now, how long would it take to get through all 100 floors?

Most players who had been forced here would have been asking this answer-less question.

The strained silence eventually gave way to low murmuring. But there was no sign of fear or despair.

Most people here would still be confused about whether this was a «real danger» or a «seriously warped opening event». Everything Jail had said was so horrifying that it felt unreal.

I craned my head back to look at the empty robe and tried to force my mind to accept this situation.

I can no longer log out, ever. I can't go back to my room, my life. The only way that I would get them back was when somebody defeated the boss on the highest floor of this floating castle. If my HP reached zero even once during that time—I would die. I would die a real death and I would be gone forever.

But.

However much I tried to accept these as facts, it was impossible. Just five or six hours ago, I had eaten the dinner that my mom had made, shared a short conversation with my sister, then walked up the floors of my house.

Now I can't go back to all that? And this is now the real reality?

Then, the red robe that had always been one step ahead of us swept its right glove and started speaking with a voice void of all emotion.

'Then I will show you evidence that this is the only reality. In your inventories, there will be a gift from me. Please confirm this.'

As soon as I heard this, I pressed my finger and thumb together and pulled downwards. All the players did likewise and the plaza was filled with the ringing sound of bells.

I pressed the item button on the menu that had just appeared and the item was there, at the top of my belongings list.

The name of the item—«hand mirror»

Why did he give us this? Even as I wondered, I tapped on the name and pressed the "make into object" button. Immediately afterward, there was a twinkling sound effect and a small rectangular mirror appeared.

I grabbed it hesitantly but nothing happened. All that it showed was the face of the avatar that I had gone through a lot of trouble to make.

I cocked my head and looked at Hayate. The samurai was also looking at the mirror in her hand with a blank expression on her face.

—Then.

Suddenly Hayate and the avatars around us were engulfed in white light. As soon as I took this in, I was surrounded too and all I could see was white.

Almost 2, 3 seconds later, the surroundings reappeared just as they had been...

No.

The face in front of me wasn't the one I'd gotten used to.

The armor made of metal plates sewn together, the bandana, and the brown hair were all the same. But the face had changed into another shape altogether. Her long, sharp eyes had become round and shone brighter. Her delicate and hooked nose had become sharper , and her lips were more pursed,thin and more beautiful. If the avatar had been a young and carefree samurai, this one was a beautiful cosplay warrior or maybe an actress in samurai movie.

I forgot about the situation for a moment and muttered.

"Who...are you?"

The same words came out of the mouth of the girl in front of me.

"Hey...who're you?"

Then I was gripped by a sudden foreboding and realized what Jail's present, the «hand mirror», meant.

I raised the mirror in a rush, and the face stared back at me.

Blond long hair tied in a single low ponytail, two round eyes of burgundy color, and a delicate face that made people look at me lovingly.

The calm face of a warrior that «Fate» had had even a few seconds ago was no longer there. The face that was in the mirror—

Was my actual face that I had tried so hard to escape from.

"Ah...it's me..."

Hayate, who had been also staring at her mirror, fell backwards. We both looked at each other and shouted at the same time.

"You're Hayate!?" "You're Fate!?"


	2. Chapter 2

SOME NAMES ARE GOING TO STAY THE SAME SO DON'T MIND PLEASE …

I DO NOT OWN MGLN AND SAO

Chapter No 2

Both mine and Hayate's voices had changed too, perhaps the voice effectors had stopped working. But we didn't have time to spare on things like that.

The mirrors fell from our hands and hit the ground, then were destroyed with a quiet smashing sound.

When I looked around again, the crowd was no longer filled with people who looked like characters from a fantasy game. A bunch of normal looking young people had now taken their place. It was like something you'd see if you gathered a bunch of people in real life at a game show venue and dressed them up in armor. Distressingly, even the sex ratio had changed greatly.

How on earth was this possible? Hayate and I, and most probably all the players around us, had changed from the avatars that we'd made from nothing, to our real selves. Of course, the texture itself still seemed like a polygon model and it still felt slightly strange, but it was almost frighteningly accurate. It was as if the gear had a full body scanner on it.

—Scan.

"...ah, right!" I looked at Hayate and forced my voice out.

"There are high density signal sensors in the Nerve Gear covering our whole head. So it can tell not only how our brains look, but our faces too..."

"B-But, how can it know how our bodies look like... Like how tall we are?"

Haid said more silently glancing from side to side at our surroundings.

The average height of the players, who were now looking at their own and others' faces with various expressions on their faces, had been noticeably reduced after the «change». I—and most probably Hayate too—had set the height to equal that of my height in the real world to prevent my extra height from hindering my movements, but most players had seemed to made themselves taller by about ten to twenty centimeters.

That wasn't all. The actual build and the horizontal length of the players had become larger too. There was no way that the Nerve Gear would have been able to know all this.

The person who answered this question was Hayate.

"Ah...wait. I bought the Nerve Gear just yesterday so I remember, but there was a part of the set-up... what was it called, calibration? Well anyway, during that bit it touched your body here and there, maybe it was that...?"

"Ah, right...that's what it was..."

Calibration was where the Nerve Gear measured «how much you had to move your hand to reach your body». This was done to reproduce the sense of feel accurately within the game. So to say, it was almost as if the Nerve Gear had data about our exact figures saved inside itself.

It was possible, making all the avatars of the players an almost perfect polygon replica of themselves. The purpose of this was also almost too clear now.

"...reality," I muttered. "He said that this was reality. That this polygon avatar...and our HP was our real body and our real life. In order to make us believe this, he's produced a perfect copy of us..."

"But...but y'know Fate."

Hayate scratched her head roughly and the eyes beneath her bandana shone as she shouted.

"Why? Why the hell's he doing something like this...?"

I didn't answer that and pointed upwards past our heads.

"Wait a moment. Most probably, he'll answer that in a bit anyway."

Jail didn't let me down. A few seconds later a voice, sounding almost solemn, sounded from the blood red sky.

'You will all most probably be wondering 'why.' Why am I—the creator of both the Nerve Gear and SAO, Jail Scaglatteia—doing something like this? Is this a sort of terrorist attack? Is he doing this to ransom us?'

It was then that Jail's voice, which had been emotionless up to now, seemed to show some signs of emotion. Suddenly the word «empathy» passed through my mind, even though there was no way that would be true.

'None of these is the reason I am doing this. Not only that, but now for me, there is no longer a reason or a purpose in doing this. The reason is because...this situation itself was my purpose in doing this. To create and watch this world is the only reason I have created the Nerve Gear and SAO. And now, everything has been realized.'

Then after a short break, Jail's voice, now emotionless again, sounded.

'...now I have finished the official tutorial for «Sword Art Online». Players—I wish you luck.'

This last sentence trailed off with a faint echo.

The huge robe rose soundlessly, and started sinking, hood first, into the system message that covered the sky, as if melting.

Its shoulders, then its chest, then its two arms and legs merged into in the red surface, and then a final red stain spread briefly. Right afterward, the system message that had covered the sky disappeared as suddenly as it appeared.

The sound of the wind blowing above the plaza and the BGM that the NPC orchestra was playing came softly to our ears.

The game had returned to its normal state, apart from the fact that a couple of rules had been changed.

Then—at last.

The crowd of ten thousand players gave a proper reaction.

In other words, countless voices started to resound loudly through the plaza.

"It's a joke right...? The hell is this? It's a joke right!?"

"Stop kidding around! Let me out! Let me out of here!"

"No! You can't! I've got to meet someone soon!"

"I don't like this! I'm gonna go home! I want to go home!"

Yells. Clamors. Shouts. Curses. Begging. And screaming.

The people that had changed from game players to prisoners in a matter of minutes crouched clutching their heads, waved their arms about, grasped each other or started to swear loudly.

In the midst of all this noise, strangely my mind became cool again.

This, is reality.

What Jail Scaglettia had declared was all true. If this was the case, this was all to be expected. It'd be strange not to. This genius was one side of Jail that made him alluringly attractive.

Now I can't return to reality for a while—perhaps a few months or maybe more than that. During this time, I can't see my mother or sister, nor talk to them. It was possible that I would never get the chance. If I died here—

I died in reality.

The Nerve Gear, that was once a game machine, is a lock to this prison and a tool of death that will fry my brain.

I breathed slowly in, then out, and opened my mouth.

"Hayate, come over here for a sec."

I grabbed the warrior's arm, who seemed to be much a little younger than me in real life, and made my way through the raving crowd.

We made it out of it quite quickly, maybe because we were near the edge. We entered one of the many streets that led out of the plaza in a radial pattern and I jumped into the shadow behind an unmoving carriage.

"...Hayate," I called her name again.

She still had a somewhat blank expression on her face. I continued talking, trying my best to sound serious.

"Listen to me. I'm going to get out of this city and head over to the next village. Come with me."

Hayate opened her eyes wide under the bandana. I kept talking in a low voice, forcing the words out.

"If what he said was true, in order to survive in this world we have to strengthen ourselves. You know that MMORPGs are a battle for resources between the players. Only the people who can acquire the most money and experience can get stronger. ...the people who've realized this are going to hunt all the monsters around the «Starting city». You'll have to wait forever for the monsters to regenerate. Going to the next village right now would be better. I know the way and all the dangerous spots, so I can get there, even if I'm only level one."

Considering that it was me, that was quite a lot of words that I had just said, but despite that she stayed silent.

Then a few seconds later her face scrunched up.

"But...but y'know. I said before that I stood in line for ages with my friends to buy this game. They would have logged in and most likely they'd be in the plaza even now. I can't...go without them.

"..."

I let out a sigh and bit my lip.

I could understand all too well what Hayate was trying to tell me through her nervous gaze.

She—was bright and was easy to get along with, and she most probably took care of other people pretty well. She was most definitely hoping that I'd take all her friends with her.

But I just couldn't nod.

If it was just Hayate, I could get to the next village while protecting us from aggressive monsters. But if there was even two more—no, even one more person coming along it would be dangerous.

If somebody died along the way, they'd die as Jail had announced.

The responsibility would undoubtedly fall on me, who suggested to set out from the safe «Starting City» and failed to protect my comrade.

To bear such a heavy burden, I could never do that. It was just simply impossible.

Hayate seemed to have read all these worries that had flashed through my mind. A smile appeared on her slightly dimpled cheek and she shook her head.

"No...I can't keep relying on you. I was a guild master in the game I used to play. It'll be fine. I'll just make do with the techniques that you've taught me till now. And...there's still a chance that this was just a bad joke and that we'll all be logged off. So don't worry about us and go to the village."

"..."

With my mouth closed, I was wracked by an indecision that I'd never felt before in my life.

Then I chose the words that would gnaw at me for two years.

"...OK."

I nodded, stepped back, and said with my dry throat.

"Well, let's part here. If anything comes up, send me a message. ...well, see you later, Hayate."

Hayate called me as I turned my eyes downwards and turned to leave.

"Fate!"

"..."

I sent her a questioning glance, but she didn't say anything; her cheek only shook a little.

I waved once and turned northwest—the direction of the village that I'd use as my next base.

When I had taken about five steps, a voice called out from behind me again.

"Hey, Fate! You look really pretty in real life! You're quite my style!"

I smiled bitterly and shouted over my shoulder.

"Your look suits you ten times better too!"

Then I turned my back on the first friend that I had made in this world and ran straight forward ceaselessly.

After I had run through the winding alleyways for a few minutes, I looked back again. Of course, there was nobody there.

I ignored the odd feeling of my chest being restricted and ran.

I ran desperately to the northwest gate of the Starting City and then past the large plains and the deep forest, then a small village located past all this—then past that to an endless, lonely game of survival.

One month into the game, two thousand people were dead.

The hope that outside help would come had been crushed; not even a message had gotten through.

I didn't see it myself, but they said that the panic and the madness that took hold of the players when they realized that they really couldn't get back was unbelievable. There were people crying and others wailing, and some even tried to dig up the ground of the city saying that they were going to destroy this world. Of course, all buildings were non-destructible objects, so this attempt failed without any results to show for it.

They say that it took days for the players to accept the situation and think of what to do afterward.

The players were split into four big groups.

The first consisted of a little over half of the players; they were the ones who still wouldn't accept the conditions that Jail Scaglatteia had put forth and still waited for outside help.

I understood what they were thinking painfully well. Their real bodies would be lying on a bed or sitting on a chair fast asleep. That was reality and this situation was the «fake», if there was even the smallest discovery they might be able to get out—of course, the log out button was gone but there might be something that the creators of the game might have overlooked—.

And outside, the company who ran the game, Agas, would be trying harder than anyone to save the players—if they could just wait, they might be able to open their eyes, have a teary reunion with their family and then return to school or work and this would all have been just something to talk about—.

It wasn't really unreasonable to think like this. I think I was hoping for the same thing deep inside.

Their plan of action was to «wait». They didn't take even a single step out of the city and used the money they had been allotted at the beginning of the game—the currency was called «Coll» in this world—sparingly, buying only the food they needed to get through the day and finding cheap inns to sleep in, and walked around in groups spending each day without any thought.

Thankfully the «Starting City» was a city that took up twenty percent of the first floor's surface and was large enough to fit a Tokyo district. So the five thousand players would have had sufficient room to live in.

But no help was forthcoming however long they waited. On some days, the sky outside was not a crystal blue but covered with grey clouds. Their money couldn't last forever and they realized that they would have to do something.

The second group consisted of about thirty percent, or three thousand players. It was a group where all the players in it worked together. The leader of it was the admin of the largest online game info site.

The players who had gathered under this group were split into several groups and shared all of their gains, collected information on the game and set out to explore the labyrinth area where the stairs were. The leaders of this group set the «Black Iron Castle» up as their base of operations and sent orders to their various groups.

This huge group didn't have a name for quite a while, but after all the members received a uniform, somebody gave them the, somewhat grim, name «The Army».

The third group was made of, at an estimate, a thousand players. It consisted of people who had wasted all their Coll but didn't want to make money by fighting monsters.

As a side-note, there were two basic bodily needs that existed in SAO. One was fatigue and the other was hunger.

I understood why fatigue existed. Virtual information and real information were no different to the users' brains. If players became sleepy they could go to an inn and rent a room to sleep in depending on the amount of money they had in their pockets. If one hoarded a large amount of Coll, they could buy a house, but the amount of money needed wasn't small.

Hunger was a need that many players thought of as strange. Although they didn't really want to imagine what was happening to their bodies in the real world, it was most probable that we were being force fed nutrients somehow. That meant that the emptiness we felt here had nothing to do with our real bodies.

But if we bought some virtual bread or meat in the game and ate it, the emptiness disappeared and we felt full. There was no way to find out how this strange mechanism worked, short of asking a professional in the field of neurology.

So the opposite was true too; the hunger didn't disappear unless we ate something. We most probably wouldn't die if we starved, but the fact that it's a need that's hard to ignore doesn't change. So the players visited the restaurants that the NPCs ran daily and ate some food there, at least data-wise.

Also, there was no need to excrete waste in the game. As to what was happening in the real world, I didn't even want to think about it.

Well back to the main point—

The players who had squandered all their money in the beginning, who couldn't sleep or eat, usually joined the huge organization that I mentioned a while ago, «The Army». This was because they received at least something to eat if they followed the orders from the top.

But there are always those who can never cooperate with others however hard they try. The ones who never wanted to join, or got kicked out for causing trouble, set the slums of the «Starting City» as their base and started thieving.

Inside the city, or the places mostly referred to as «Safe Areas» were protected by the system and players couldn't hurt each other. But it wasn't like that outside. The stragglers made teams with other stragglers and ambushed other players—which was in many ways much more profitable than hunting monsters—out on the fields or the labyrinth areas.

Even then, they never «murdered» anybody—well at least during the first year.

This group got slowly larger until they reached the aforementioned number of a thousand.

The final, fourth group was, simply said, the rest.

There were fifty organizations made by the people who wanted to clear the game but didn't join the huge organization. Their number was about five hundred. We called these groups «Guilds» and they had a mobility that «The Army» lacked; and using that, they steadily grew stronger.

Then there were the very few who chose the merchant and craftsman classes. They numbered only about two, three hundred, but they created guilds of their own and started training the skills that they would need to earn the Coll they need to get by.

The rest, around one hundred players, were called «Solo Players»—this was the group I belonged in.

They were the selfish group who had decided that acting alone would be better for strengthening themselves and simply surviving. If one could use the information they had, they could level up quickly. After they had gained the power to fight against monsters and bandits by themselves, there was truthfully no merit in fighting with other players.

An additional feature of SAO was that there was no «Magic»; in other words, there were no «long range attacks with a 100% accuracy rate». so one could fight large groups of monsters alone. If one had the required skills, playing solo was much more effective experience point- wise than party playing.

Of course, there were risks involved. To give an example, if a person was «Paralyzed» and if he had party members with him, they'd just cure him and that'd be that. But if the person was playing solo, it could lead straight to death. Actually, in the very beginning, solo players had the highest fatality rate amongst all the players.

But if you had the experience and knowledge to win through all this danger, there was a much better compensation for all this risk, and the beta testers, including myself, had both of these things.

With this precious information, the solo players leveled up at a fierce pace, and soon a huge gap appeared between them and the rest of the players. After the game had calmed down a bit, most solo players got out of the first floor and used the cities in the upper levels as their bases.

Inside the Black Iron Castle, where the «Room of the Resurrected» had been during the beta testing, there now stood a huge metal monument that hadn't even existed during beta testing. The names of all ten thousand players were carved on its surface. In addition, a line appeared on the name of the people who were dead, and it gave the time and reason of death next to it.

The first person to get the honor of having his name crossed out appeared three hours into the game.

The reason of death was not losing to a monster. It was suicide.

He believed in the theory that "according to the structure of the Nerve Gear, if a person is cut off from the system they'll automatically regain consciousness." He climbed over the iron fence at the north end of the city, or the edge of Mid childa and flung himself off.

Beneath the floating castle that was Mid childa, no sort of ground could be seen, however much you squinted. There was only an endless sky with several layers of white clouds. As countless players watched him, the boy got steadily smaller, leaving a long scream and finally disappearing into the clouds.

The short line was crossed mercilessly over the boy's name two minutes later. The reason of death was «Falling in midair». I didn't even want to imagine what he went through during those two minutes. There was no way of knowing if he had returned to the real world or—as Jail had said—had had his brain fried. But, most people believed that if there was such a simple way of escaping the game, the people outside would have already pulled the plugs and saved us.

But there were still some who gave in to this easy way of dealing with things. Most people, including me, found it hard to take the «Death» in SAO in as reality.

That had still not changed. The phenomenon of the HP bar reaching zero and the polygons that consisted our bodies being destroyed was too much like the «Game Over» that we were all too familiar with. It was probable that the only way to understand the real meaning of death in SAO would be to experience it yourself. This shaky truth would have been the reason that the decrease in players slowed.

On the other hand, a lot of the players who were part of «The Army», especially the ones who had first belonged to the first group, started losing their lives while trying to clear the game and fighting monsters.

Fights in SAO needed a bit of getting used to. It was less like trying to force yourself to move but «entrusting» your movements to the system.

For example, even for a simple uppercut with a one-handed sword, if the player learned the «One-handed Sword Skill» and then equipped «Uppercut» from the list, they would only need to assume the starting motion; then the system would almost automatically move their body for them. But if someone without the skill tried to copy the movements, it would be too slow and weak to use in actual combat. It was like inputting commands in a fighting game.

The people who didn't adjust to this just swung their swords around and even lost to the boars and wolves that they would have been able to beat if they used the single strike skills that they had on as default. Even then, if they just gave up and ran away after losing some of their HP, they wouldn't have died but—

Unlike the attacks of 2D monsters that we see through a monitor screen, the battles in SAO were so real that you feel afraid. It was as if a real monster was baring its teeth at you and giving chase with the intention of killing you.

Even during the beta testing, there were some people who panicked in the middle of a fight, but now death awaited you if you lost. The panic-stricken players forgot about using their skills and even running away; their HP disappeared and they were expelled from this world forever.

Suicide, losing to monsters. The number of crossed out names multiplied at a terrifying pace.

When these reached two thousand, one month into the game, a cloud of despair hung over the surviving players. If the number of deaths kept increasing at this speed, all ten thousand would be dead in less than half a year. Clearing the hundredth floor seemed like a mere dream.

But—humans adapt.

A little over a month later, the first labyrinth was cleared and the number of deaths started to slow quickly. People started spreading information in order to survive and most people started to perceive that monsters weren't all that scary if you gained enough experience points and leveled up properly.

It might be possible to clear the game and return to the real world. The number of players that started thinking like that increased slowly but steadily.

The top floor was still far away, but the players started moving with this vague hope—and the world started turning again.

Now, two years later and with twenty six floors left, the number of survivors is around six thousand.

This is the current situation in Mid childa.

After ending my fight with a formidable enemy that prowled the «Labyrinth Area» of floor seventy-four, I recounted my way back, as well as the past, and let out a sigh of relief as I saw the light of the entrance.

I emptied my head, walked quickly out of the passageway, and took a deep breath of the fresh, clean air.

In front of me, a narrow lane went into the thick, overgrown forest. Behind me, the labyrinth area I had just come out of soared high into the sky—until the bottom of the next floor to be more precise.

Because the game was based on getting to the top of the castle, the dungeons in this world weren't underground labyrinths but existed as towers. However, the basic setting hadn't changed: monsters stronger than the ones you met out on the fields roamed within, while the boss monster waited for you in its deepest reaches.

Right now, eighty percent of the seventy-fourth floor labyrinth area had been explored, or in other words, had been «mapped». In a couple of days, the boss room would most probably be discovered, and a large-scale team would be made. Then, even I, a solo player, would take part.

I smiled at myself for feeling both expectant and frustrated at the same time and started walking down the lane.

For the moment, my hometown is the biggest city in Mid childa, «Algade», which was located on the fiftieth floor. Well, in mere size, the Starting City was larger, but that place had now totally become «The Army»'s base of operations, so it was a little uncomfortable to walk around in.

As soon as I made it out of the now darkening plains, a forest full of old trees stretched out before me. If I walked for thirty minutes through there, I would arrive at the «Housing Area» of the seventy-fourth floor and just use the «Teleport Gate» there to warp myself over to Algade.

I could always use one of the instant teleportation items in my inventory to return to Algade at any time. But since it was a little expensive, I was reluctant to use it unless I was in a dangerous situation. There was still some time before the sun disappeared completely, so I resisted the temptation of returning to my house as fast as I could and entered the forest.

As a rule, the edges of each floor in Aincrad were usually open to the sky, apart from the support pillars. The trees burned red from the light that entered through that gap. The mist that flowed in between the rays of light shone brilliantly as it reflected the light of the sunset. The cries of the birds, which were common during the day, were hard to hear now, while the sound of branches swaying in the wind seemed magnified.

I knew quite well that I could fight the monsters that appeared in this area even while half- asleep, but the fear that comes with the dark was hard to suppress. A feeling, similar to the one I had as a kid when I was trying to get back home after losing my way, filled me.

But I didn't dislike this feeling. I had forgotten about this primitive fear sometime when I was living back on the other side. The feeling of loneliness that you get when you're traveling the wilderness with nobody in sight however much you look—you could call this the essence of an RPG.

While I was absorbed in these nostalgic memories, a cry that I'd never heard before suddenly entered my ears.

It sounded only for a moment, high and clear like a reed pipe. I stopped my feet and carefully searched for the direction the sound came from. If you heard or saw something that you'd never experienced before in this world, it meant that you were either very lucky or the opposite.

As a solo player, I'd trained my «Scan for Enemy» skill. This skill prevented ambushes and when you became more proficient at it, it gave the player the additional ability of being able to detect monsters that were in "hiding." Through it, I could see a monster hiding between the branches ten meters away.

It wasn't very big. It had green fur to camouflage itself in the leaves and had ears longer than its body. As I concentrated on it, it automatically became my target and a yellow cursor appeared along with its name.

I held my breath as soon as I read the name: «Ragout Rabbit». It was rare enough to earn the adjective "super."

It was the first time I'd actually seen the real thing. The plump rabbit that lived in the branches wasn't all that strong, nor did it give you that many experience points, but-

I silently drew a thin throwing pick from my belt. My «Knife Throwing Skill» wasn't all that high. I had simply chosen it as a branch on my skill tree at some point. But I'd heard that the Ragout Rabbit was the fastest monster among the ones that were currently known, so I didn't really have much confidence in catching it with my sword.

I had one chance to attack before the opponent noticed me. I raised my pick, praying mentally, and assumed the «Single Shot» position.

Well, however low my skill was, my hand was backed up by my high dexterity and threw the pick in a blur of motion. The pick glinted once and then was sucked into the trees. As soon as I attacked, the cursor, which showed the direction the Ragout Rabbit was in, turned red and the HP bar appeared beneath it.

A high pitched scream sounded from the direction which I'd thrown my pick. The HP bar faltered a little and then went down to 0. The familiar sound of polygons shattering resounded.

I made a fist with my left hand. I raised my right hand and opened the main menu. I opened the inventory quickly, with even my hand movements seeming too slow to me, and it was there at the very top of the newly acquired item list: «Ragout Rabbit's meat». It was a rare item that could be sold to other players at a minimum price of one hundred thousand Coll. That amount of money was enough to tailor a full set of the best armor and still have change leftover.

The reason that this was so expensive was pretty simple, as it was set as the most delicious food ingredient among the numerous ingredients available in the game.

Eating was just about the only pleasure in SAO, but the only thing you could eat usually was the soup and bread that tasted as if they were from the European countryside—well not that I knew; but the fact was that it was plain. A few players who had trained their cooking skill had established this after a lot of thought in order to let the other players eat a wider range of foods. But even this wasn't that easy to get across, so as a rule the players were all deprived of taste.

Of course, my current situation wasn't much different, and I didn't dislike the soup and full wheat bread the NPC restaurant that I frequented sold. But from time to time the need to eat at least a mouthful of juicy meat overtook me.

For a while I stared at the name of the item and kept wondering what to do. The chances of me getting this sort of ingredient again were very low. To be honest, I really wanted to eat it. But the higher the ingredients' rank, the more skill was needed to actually cook it. So I had to find a master level cook to cook this for me.

But I didn't know any. Well, I did know a few, but hunting them down for something like this was annoying. Even more than that, it was about time I got a new set of equipment. Consequently, I decided to sell it.

I closed the window as if to get rid of any regrets, and scanned the area with my skill. There wasn't a very high chance of a bandit appearing on the front lines, but you couldn't be too careful when you had an S-class item in your hands.

I'd be able to buy all the teleport items I wanted once I sold this, so I decided to minimize the risk involved and started rummaging through my pouch.

The thing that I'd taken out was a crystal shaped like an eight sided pillar that shone a rich blue. The few magic items in this world where «Magic» had been excluded were all shaped like gems. Blue was for instant teleportation, pink for recovering HP, green for antidotes, and so on. They were all convenient items that produced instant effects, but they were also expensive. So in most cases people used cheaper items such as slow-acting potions after running away from a fight.

Telling myself that this was, without a doubt, an emergency situation, I grasped the blue crystal and shouted.

"Teleport! Algade!"

There was the refreshing sound of many bells ringing and the crystal in my hand shattered into pieces. At the same time, my body was engulfed in blue light and the forest disappeared from my vision as if it was melting. A brighter light then flashed, and when it disappeared, the teleportation was over. In place of the sound of the rustling leaves, the sound of a smith hammering and the loud sounds of the city invaded my ears.

The place I appeared at was the «Teleport Gate» that was situated in the middle of Algade.

In the middle of the circular plaza, a gate made out of metal stood over five meters high. Inside, the air swirled as if a mirage, and people who were teleporting, or who had just teleported, came and went.

Four large roads stretched in all four directions out of the plaza, and on the sides of all these roads, countless small shops were gathered. The players who sought a short refuge after a day of exploring shared conversations in front of the food menus or pubs.

If someone tried to describe Algade in one word, it would be «messy».

There were no big streets like the ones you could see in the Starting City and crisscrossing alleyways covered the whole city. There were shops that you couldn't even tell what they were selling, and inns that looked like you could never get back out once you went in.

Actually, there were a lot of players who'd accidentally gone into one of the alleyways of Algade and wandered for days before getting back out. I've been living here for almost a year now, but I still can't remember half of them. Even the NPCs here were strange people whose class was hard to guess, and it makes you think that people who use this as a hometown these days are all sort of strange.

But I liked the feel of these streets. It wasn't an exaggeration to say that the only time I felt at peace was when I was sipping some strange smelling tea at a corner shop I frequented. The reason behind this was that I felt a little sentimental because it reminded me of an electronics store I used to frequent—well not really, or I hoped not.

Thinking that I'd deal with the item before going back to my house, I started walking towards a shop.

If I followed the road that led west out of the central plaza, I would arrive at the shop after working my way through the crowds for a little bit. Inside, it was so small that five players would feel cramped in there, and it had the trademark dizziness of a player shop: the tools, weapons, and even food ingredients were mixed up.

The shop owner was busily getting worked up bargaining.

There are two ways of selling items. One was selling to an NPC, a character controlled by the system. There was no danger of being tricked but the price was always the same. To stop inflation, the price was set lower than the actual market price.

The other was trading with another player. In this case, you could sell the item for a high price if you bargained well, but you had to find someone to buy it, and arguments between the players after completing the trade weren't uncommon.

Therefore, merchant players who specialized in trading items appeared.

Merchant players couldn't live on trading itself. Like the technician classes, they had to fill half of their skill slots with battle unrelated skills. But that didn't mean that they could stay off the fields. Merchants had to fight for goods and technicians for ingredients, and, of course, they had a harder time than warriors. It was hard for them to feel the exhilarating feeling of beating an enemy.

Therefore, the reason that they chose these classes would be the noble one of helping the players who fought on the front lines every day. So I respected them deeply, if secretly.

…well, I respected them, but it was also true that the character in front of me was someone who was very far from self-sacrificing.

"Okay, it's settled! Twenty-five «Dust Lizard's hides» for five hundred Coll!"

The owner of this shop I often came to, Signum, thumped her bargaining opponent, a weak looking spearman, on the back with her thin arm. Then she quickly opened the trade window and entered the amount in her trade list.

The opponent seemed to be thinking, but as soon as he viewed Signum's face, which looked frightening enough to resemble one of a seasoned warrior—in fact, Signum was a top class sword warrior as well as a merchant—she hurried to put the items in her trade list and pressed OK.

"Thank you every time! Please visit again!"

Signum thumped the spearman's back one last time and smiled brightly. The hide of the Dusk Lizard could be used to create high standard armor. I thought that five hundred was too cheap however you looked at it. But I stayed silent and watched the spearman leave. Take this as a lesson to never give any ground when bargaining, I muttered in my mind.

"Hey, you're going about your business shamelessly as usual."

The pink haired warrior looked my way and smiled when I said this behind her.

"Hey, Fate. Our shop's motto is to buy cheap and sell cheap," she said without any sign of remorse.

"Well, I'm a little suspicious about the 'sell cheap' bit but that doesn't matter. I want to sell you something too."

"You're a regular, so I can't trick you. Well, let's see…"

As she said this, Signum stretched her thick, short neck and looked in the trade window that I'd offered.

The avatars in SAO were all replicas of the player's real body which had been created through scans and calibrations. But every time I looked at Signum, I always asked myself how someone could have a body that fit her so well.

All 70 centimeters of her body were packed with muscle and fat, and the head that rested on top of it looked as if it'd fit a pro-wrestler. On top of that, she had pink hair in a high ponytail.

Despite that, she had a charming face that looked childlike when she smiled. She looked in her late twenties but I couldn't even guess what she did in the real world. Not asking others about «The other side» was an unspoken rule in this world.

The two eyes that were below her thin eyebrows widened as soon as she saw the trade window.

"Wow, it's an S-rank rare item. «Ragout Rabbit's meat», it's the first time I've actually seen one… Fate you're not that poor are you? Don't you have any thoughts of eating this?"

"Of course I have. It'll be hard to come across something like this a second time… But it's sort of hard to find someone who can cook something like this…"

Then someone behind me tapped my shoulder.

"Fate-Chan."

It was a feminine voice. I grabbed the hand on my left shoulder and said.

"Cook acquired."

"Wh-What?"

With her hand in mine, the person stammered with a suspicious expression on her face.

The small face, which was surrounded by long straight chestnut hair that was in a high side ponytail, and her two sparkling blue sapphire eyes were almost blinding. Her thin body was covered by a red and white knight-like combat uniform, and there was an elegant silver-white rapier sheathed in her white leather scabbard.

Her name was Nanoha. She was so famous that almost everybody in SAO knew her.

There were a lot of reasons, but the first was that she was one of the very few female players, and that she was the owner of a face that lacked nothing.

It's hard to say this in this world, where everyone had their real bodies, but beautiful women were a super rare presence within it. You could most probably count the number of players that were as pretty as Nanoha with your fingers.

Another reason that she's famous was because of her red and white uniform which belonged to the guild «Knights of the Blood». The members are called KoB by taking the initials from «Knights of the Blood», and, out of the many guilds, everyone acknowledged them as the best.

It's only a medium-sized guild of about thirty players, but they were all high leveled and seasoned warriors, with the leader of the guild being its strongest player and almost a legend within SAO. Also, contrary to her delicate frame, Nanoha was the sub-leader. Her sword skill was so exceptional that it had earned her the title «Flash».

So her appearance and sword skill were at the zenith of six thousand players. It would have been strange for her not to have become famous. She had numerous fans, but among them there were some stalkers who virtually worship her, and there were also those who hate her, so it seems like she's having a hard time.

Well, since she is a top class warrior, there shouldn't be that many that would challenge her directly. But as if the guild wanted to show that they would protect her, she's often trailed by two or more bodyguards. Even now, there were two men a few steps behind her fully equipped in metal armor and KoB uniforms. One of them, with his hair in a pony tail, was glaring at me, who had grabbed Nanoha's hand.

I let go of her hand, shook mine in his direction, and replied.

"What's up, Nanoha? For you to be coming to such a rubbish heap like this."

The face of the man with the pony tail and the shop owner's faces convulsed; one because I didn't call Nanoha with her title and the other because I called her shop a rubbish heap. But the shop owner...

"It's been a while, Signum-san."

...gave a sunny smile after hearing Nanoha's greeting.

Nanoha looked back at me and pouted her lips in discontent.

"Hey, what's this? After all the trouble I went through to see if you were alive for the boss fight that's going to take place soon."

"You've already listed me as a friend so you'd be able to tell if you just looked at that. Anyway the only reason you could find me was because you used a friend trace on your map."

Nanoha turned her head to the side as soon as I answered.

She was also responsible for progressing through the game in the guild as well as being a sub-leader. That job included searching out selfish solo players like me and forming a party to fight bosses. But even then, to actually come to see me, there should be a limit to how devoted a person could be.

Looking at my half-tired, half-amazed expression, Nanoha put her hands on her hips before saying with a motion that was akin to raising her chin.

"Well, you're alive and that's all that matters. M-More than that, what do you mean? You were saying something about a chef or something."

"Oh, right right. How high is your cooking skill right now?"

By what I knew, Nanoha was particularly focused on raising her cooking skill whenever she found time in between training her sword skills. She answered my question with a proud smile.

"Listen and be surprised! I «Mastered» it last week."

"What!?"

She's…an idiot.

I thought that for a second. I didn't say it out loud, of course.

Training skills was mind-numbingly boring and extremely time-consuming, and could only be «Mastered» after leveling them up 1000 times. On that note, levels didn't have anything to do with skills and went up by gaining experience points. The things that went up with the levels were HP, strength, stats like dexterity, and the number of «Skill Slots» which decided how many skills you could learn.

Right now I had twelve slots, but the only ones that had been completed were my one-handed straight sword skill, Scan for Enemy skill, and my Weapon Guard skill. It meant that this girl had spent a lot of time and effort on a skill that wasn't even of any help in battle.

"…well, I've got something to ask you to do, trusting that skill."

I waved her over and put my window on show mode so that she could see it. Nanoha looked at it suspiciously, and then her eyes widened at the name of the item.

"Uwa! That…that's an S-rank food ingredient!?"

"Let's trade. If you cook this, I'll let you have a bite."

Even before I stopped talking, that right hand of «Flash» Nanoha grabbed me by the collar. Then she pushed her face to a few centimeters before mine.

"Give. Me. Half!"

My chest stopped at this sudden ambush and I nodded without thinking. When I got back to my senses it was too late, and she was waving her arm with excitement. Well, let's consider it a good thing that I can watch that delicate face from so close. I convinced myself.

I closed the window and spoke while looking at Signum's face.

"Sorry. I'll stop the trade."

"No. It's fine but…hey, we're friends right? Eh? Can't you give me a taste…?"

"I'll give you an eight hundred word essay on it."

"D-Don't be like that!"

As I cold-heartedly turned my back on Signum, she called out in a voice that seemed as if it was the end of the world. As I made to walk away, Nanoha grabbed the sleeve of my coat.

"Cooking's good, but where are we going to do it?"

"Ah…"

If you're going to cook, then you needed some cooking appliances, such as a stove or an oven, as well as the ingredients. It wasn't as if my house didn't have them, but I couldn't invite the sub-leader of the KoB into a messy place like that.

Nanoha looked at me with an unbelieving expression on her face.

"Well, your house wouldn't have the proper appliances anyway. But I could serve it to you in my house just this once."

She said something shocking in a calm voice.

Nanoha ignored me, who was standing there frozen as if I was lagging while my brain processed this, and turned to her guards and spoke.

"I'm going to teleport to «Salemburg» soon, so its fine if you go. Thank you for your hard work."

"N-Nanoha-sama! Coming into the slums was bad enough, but to invite someone as suspicious as her to your house. Wh-What are you thinking!?"

I couldn't believe what I just heard. «Sama» he said. He must be one of the worshipers. As I looked at Nanoha with these thoughts, the person in question had an annoyed expression on her face.

"OK, maybe you could call him suspicious, but his skill is unquestionable. He's most probably ten levels above you Cradil."

"Wh-What are you saying? To say that I'm not even equal to someone like that…!"

The man's voice sounded all the way out to the alley. He glared at me with his heavily lidded eyes. Then his face scrunched up as if he suddenly recognized something.

"That's right…you, you were definitely a «Beater»!"

Beater was made by mixing «Beta tester» and «Cheater». It was a word meant for people who used unfair means and a swearword that was unique to SAO. It was something I'd heard a lot of times. But however many times I heard it, it still hurt me deeply. The face of the person who had first said it to me, who had once been a friend, suddenly appeared in my head.

"Yeah. You're right."

When I affirmed it with an expressionless face, the guy started talking excitedly.

"Nanoha-sama, these sorts of people don't care about anything as long as they're fine! There's nothing to gain from mixing with these kinds of people!"

Nanoha, who had been calm until now, suddenly knotted her eyebrows in disgust. A crowd had suddenly appeared and the words «KoB» and «Nanoha» could be heard here and there.

Nanoha looked around and said to the man who was getting more excited by the minute.

"Well, please leave for today. That's an order."

She spoke bluntly and grabbed my belt with her left hand. Then she started walking towards the gate plaza, dragging me as she went.

"Err…hey! Is it okay to leave them like that?"

"It's fine!"

Well, I've got no reason to complain. We made our way through the crowd, leaving the two guards and Signum, who was still disappointed. When I glanced back one last time, the furious expression of the man called Cradil stuck to my vision like an afterimage.

YOU MIGHT HAVE NOTICED THAT I LET ONE OF THE CHARACTERS KEEP HIS NAME BECAUSE I COULD NOT FIND A NAME SUITABLE FOR HIM…

PLEASE REVIEW ….


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER NO 3

Salemburg was a beautiful castle-city on the sixty-first floor.

It isn't all that big. But the city, with a castle which has serene spires at its center, was delicately built from white granite and contrasted spectacularly with the overflowing green foliage. There were quite a few shops in the market so a lot of players wanted to use this place as their home city. But since the houses were crazily expensive—they must be at least three times the price of Algade—it's almost impossible to buy one unless you were at a high level.

When Nanoha and I arrived at the teleport gate in Salemburg, the sun had almost set, and the final rays of light lit the streets a dark purple.

Most of the sixty-first floor was taken up by a lake, and Salemburg was located on an island in the middle of it, so one could see the setting sun reflected on it like a picture on a canvas.

I gazed at the city in awe, my breath taken away by its beauty as it shined blue and red with the vast lake behind it. Not that it would be that hard for the Nerve Gear to create lighting effects like this with CPUs of the new generation and their diamond semiconductors.

The teleport gate was placed in the plaza in front of the castle and the main street, which headed north going through the city and was lined by street lamps. The stores and houses stood orderly on either side of the street, and even the NPCs that were walking around looked well dressed somehow. I spread my arms and breathed deeply, as even the taste of the air differed from Algade.

"Hmmm. It's large and has few people. I like how it feels so spacious."

"Then why don't you move?"

"I don't have anywhere near enough money," I answered with a shrug before fixing my expression and asking hesitatingly.

"…more than that, is it really okay? Back there…"

"…"

As if she realized what I was trying to say, Nanoha twirled around with her head bowed down and tapped the floor with the tip of her boot.

"…it's true that some bad things happened a couple of times when I was alone. But to assign bodyguards to me, it's going a bit too far, right? I said I didn't need them, but…the members said that it's guild policy."

She continued in a subdued voice.

"In the past, the guild was small with the leader inviting people individually by talking with them. But as the number of members grew and started changing… Then when it started being called the greatest guild or so, something became a bit strange."

She stopped talking and turned around slightly. Something in her eyes seemed like she wanted to rely on me, and I subconsciously stopped breathing.

I had to say something. I thought that, but what could a selfish solo player like me say? I simply watched in silence for a few seconds.

Nanoha turned her gaze first. She watched the lake, bathed in soft light, and said, as if to get rid of the awkwardness,

"Well, it's nothing much, so you don't have to worry! If we don't go quickly, the sun is going to set."

Nanoha set off first, and I followed suit. We passed by quite a lot of players, but none of them stared at her.

I only stayed here for a couple of days when the front line had been here, so I never really looked around properly. As I looked at the delicate carvings that adorned the city, the thought that living in a city like this for a while wouldn't be too bad came unbidden to my mind. But then I changed my mind and decided that it would be better if I only came here once in a while to sightsee.

The house where Nanoha lived was a small but pretty three floored maisonette which you could get to by walking eastward from the downtown area for a few minutes. It was, of course, the first time that I had come here. Now that I thought about it, I'd only talked to this girl during boss fight conferences; and we'd never even been to an NPC restaurant together before. As I became conscious of this, I stopped in front of the doorway, suddenly tense, and asked.

"Is it…alright? Y'know…"

"What? It's something I suggested first, and there wasn't anywhere that was fit for cooking so we don't have a choice!"

Nanoha turned her head and bounced up the stairs. I steeled my resolve and followed her.

"E-Excuse me."

I hesitantly opened the door then stood there, speechless.

I'd never seen a home so well-ordered before. The wide living/dining room and the kitchen adjacent to it had furniture made out of light-colored wood and was decorated with moss green cloth. They were all most probably the highest-quality player-made items.

But it wasn't overly decorated either, nor did it make you feel uncomfortable. It was totally different from my house. I felt overwhelmingly relieved that I didn't invite her to my house.

"Erm…how much did this cost…?"

At my materialistic question.

"Hmm-, with the house and the furniture, about 4000k? I'm going to change so just sit anywhere you want."

She answered lightly and disappeared through a doorway. "K" is short for thousand. 4000k meant four million Coll. I practically lived on the front lines, so I could save up that much if I tried. But I always wasted it on either some strange item or a sword that caught my eye, so I never saved up. I chastised myself, which was out of character, and sank into the spongy sofa.

Nanoha appeared after a short while, fully changed into a simple white tunic and a knee-length skirt. Well, I say changed but there's no actual taking off and putting on involved. All you have to do is fiddle with the figure in the stats window. But there were a few seconds when the player was only dressed in their underwear. So unless they were a very bold male player, most players, especially girls, did not change in front of others. Our bodies may be nothing more than just a bunch of data rendered into 3D, but that sort of thinking got hazy after two years, and right now my eyes went to Nanoha's bare arms and legs without any remorse.

Nanoha, with no clue of my inner-conflict, threw a sharp look my way and said.

"Are you planning to stay dressed like that?"

I quickly opened my menu screen and took off my leather coat and sword. While I was at it, I brought the «Ragout Rabbit's meat» out as well and put it, which was in a clay bowl, on the table in front of me.

"So this is the legendary S-rank food ingredient-. …so, what should I make?"

"Ch-Chef's recommendation."

"Oh…? Well then, let's have stew. It even has «ragout» in its name."

Nanoha headed into the next room; I followed.

The kitchen was large, and the various appliances that I could see next to the oven looked expensive. Nanoha double clicked on the oven's surface, set the time on the pop up window that appeared, and pulled out a metal pot from the cupboard. She put the raw meat in it, threw a couple of herbs in, and then poured water inside it before closing the lid.

"If I was actually cooking, I would need to make all sorts of preparations. But in SAO, it's so short that it's no fun."

She put the pot in the oven and pressed the "start" button on the menu as she complained. Even as the 300 seconds counted down, she moved about with precision, making various other side dishes. I watched in a stupefied daze as she went about, not making even a single mistake in operating the menu or in the actual tasks.

In just five minutes, the table was fully set, and Nanoha and I sat down across from each other. The brown stew looked incredibly delicious as it rested on the plate in front of me. Its smell enticed me as the steam rose slowly from it. Smooth, rich sauce covered the thick meat, and the creamy white marbling on it was truly enchanting.

We lifted our spoons and felt that even the time spent saying, "Thank you for the meal," was too long. Then we ate a mouthful of the best food in existence in SAO. I tasted the heat and flavor in my mouth, and as I bit into the meat, the juices inside poured out.

Eating in SAO didn't calculate and simulate the feeling of biting into the food. Instead it used a «Taste Reproduction Engine» that Argus and an affiliated environment programming designer had made together.

This sent preprogrammed sensations of «eating» various foods and could make the user feel as if they were actually eating something in real life. It was originally designed for people who were on diets or needed to restrict the amount of food they ate, so it sent fake signals to the parts of the brain registering heat, taste, and smell to trick it. In other words, our real bodies weren't actually eating anything right now, and all that's happening was that the program was wildly stimulating our brains.

But thinking of such things in this situation was just not cool. I was, without a doubt, eating the best food I've tasted since logging on. Nanoha and I didn't say a word and continued to go through the process of scooping up the soup with our spoons and bringing it to our mouths.

Finally, as we cleaned our dishes—in every sense of the word, as if the stew actually existed—and left the empty plate and pot in front of her, Nanoha let out a big sigh.

"Ah…I did well to stay alive till now…"

I totally agreed. Feeling full with the pleasure of having completely fulfilled a basic need for the first time in a long while, I sipped the mysterious-smelling tea. Does the taste of the meat I just ate and of the tea I'm sipping actually exist in the real world? Or were they man-made by manipulating the system? I pondered these thoughts absent-mindedly.

Nanoha, sitting opposite of me with a tea cup held in her two hands, broke the few minutes of silence that lingered after the end of the feast.

"It's strange somehow… How should I put it, I feel like, I was born in this world and I've been living here until now or something."

"…me too. Lately there have been some days when I didn't think about the other world at all. It's not just me either… There aren't many people who are obsessed with 'clearing' or 'escaping' nowadays."

"The pace has slackened as well. There are only about five hundred players on the front lines now. It's not only because of the danger…everyone, has gotten used to it, to this world…"

I simply stared at Nanoha's beautiful face, with the light from the orange lamp reflecting on it.

That face, it was definitely not a human's. With smooth skin and the shiny hair, it was too beautiful to belong to a life form. But to me, the face didn't look like it was made from a bunch of polygons anymore. I could accept that it was what it was. If I returned to the real world now and saw an actual person, I'd probably feel pretty disconcerted.

Did I really think that I wanted to go back…to that world…?

I was puzzled by the sudden thought. I woke up early and gained experience points while mapping the labyrinth. Was this really because I wanted to escape from the game?

In the past, I really did. I wanted to get out as fast as I could from this death game where you had no idea when you could die. But now I've gotten used to the game-.

"But I want to go back."

Nanoha said in a clear voice as if she'd seen my inner conflict. I raised my head sharply.

Nanoha smiled at me for some reason and continued.

"Because, there're so many things, that I haven't done yet."

I willingly nodded to this.

"Yeah, I suppose we have to try our best. I won't be able to look at the faces of those technician classes that supported us if we don't…"

I drank a mouthful of tea, as if to get rid of the conflict inside me. The top floor was still far away. It wouldn't be too late to think about all this then.

Feeling strangely honest, I stared at Nanoha while trying to pick the appropriate words to express my gratitude. Then Nanoha scrunched up her face and waved her hand, saying.

"N-N, no."

"Wh-What?"

"Some male and female players confessed to me when they made that expression."

"Wha…"

Disappointingly, although I had mastered my battle skills, I'd never experienced that before, so I simply opened and closed my mouth without being able to rebuke it in any way.

Nanoha looked at me and laughed. I must seem pretty half-witted right now.

"So there's no one that you're particularly close to?"

"What's wrong with that…? Well, it's fine, I'm a solo anyway."

"Well, since you're playing an MMORPG, you should make some friends."

Nanoha erased her smile and asked, as if she had suddenly become a teacher or an older sister.

"Don't you ever have any thoughts about joining a guild?"

"Eh…"

"I understand that a beta tester like you can't get used to groups, but…"

Her expression became serious again.

"After the seventieth floor, I think more random variants are appearing in the monsters' algorithms."

I felt this too. Did the programmers plan for the CPU's tactics to become harder to read, or was it the result of the program actually learning by itself? If the latter was true, it would just keep getting harder.

"If you're solo, it'll get harder to take care of unexpected situations. You can't always escape. It'll be much safer if you're in a party."

"I have enough safety nets. Thank you for your advice but…guilds are, just…and…"

It would have been better if I had just stopped there, but I started bragging instead.

"Party members are usually more of a burden than any help, in my case."

"Oh, really?"

Flash, a silver streak seemed to cut the air in front of me, and by the time I registered it, Nanoha's knife was already held just in front of my nose. It's a basic rapier skill, «Linear». Well, I say basic, but because of Nanoha's overwhelming dexterity, the speed was amazing. To tell the truth, I couldn't even see the weapon's trajectory.

With a forced smile, I raised my arms in a sign of defeat.

"…okay, you're an exception."

"Hmmph."

She pulled the knife away with a bored expression, and then as she spun it around with her fingers, she said something unexpected.

"Then party with me. As the head of the boss party, I'll see if you're as strong as the rumors say. I've shown you that I'm good enough. Also, this week's lucky color is black."

"What, what are you saying!?"

I almost fell over at this absurd proclamation and searched frantically for an argument against it.

"If…if you're going to do that, what about your guild!?"

"It's not as if we have a level quota."

"Then, then what about your bodyguards?"

"I'm going to leave them behind."

I raised the teacup to my mouth in a bid to buy some time but realized that it was already empty. Nanoha took it from me with a smug expression on her face and refilled it with the hot liquid from the pot.

To tell the truth—it was an attractive offer. Almost any guy would want to party with someone you could call the prettiest girl in Mid childa and I was lucky getting the offer as a girl. But because of this, I kept asking myself why such a famous person like Nanoha would want to party with me.

Perhaps she pitied me because I was a lonely solo player? Something that I said almost unconsciously, as I was filled with these negative thoughts, almost became my demise.

"The front lines are dangerous."

Nanoha's knife went up again and shined with a seemingly brighter light than before. I nodded as quickly as I could. Even with my doubts about why she chose me, who wasn't all that noticeable among the people who were trying to clear the game, I said with resolution.

"O-Okay. Then…I'll be waiting in front of the gate of the seventy-fourth floor, tomorrow morning at nine."

Nanoha answered with a confident smile as she lowered her hand.

Not knowing how long I could stay at someone's house without being rude, I said goodbye as soon as we finished eating. As Nanoha accompanied me to the foot of the stairs in the building, she tilted her head a little to the side and spoke.

"Well…I suppose I'll have to thank you for today. The food was good."

"Ah me, me too. I want to ask you for your help again…but I suppose I won't be able to get my hands on something like that again."

"Oh, even normal food tastes different if you're skilled enough."

Nanoha replied before turning her head up to look at the sky. The sky had been completely covered with the darkness of nighttime. But, of course, you couldn't see any stars. A gloomy cover of iron and stone closed it off one hundred meters up in the air. I lifted my head as well and muttered.

"…this situation, this world, is this what Jail Scaglettia wanted to make…?"

Both of us couldn't answer this question that was aimed half at myself.

Scaglettia, who was surely watching this world while hiding somewhere, what could he be thinking? This peaceful situation that came after the bloodstained confusion of the beginning, would it have satisfied or disappointed him? There was no way I could know.

As Nanoha stepped closer to me silently, I could feel a slight warmth at my arm. Was I imagining it, or was it the result of the ever faithful simulators?

November 6, 2022 was the day this death game started, and now it was nearing the end of October 2024. Even today, after almost two years, not a single message had come through from the other side, let alone any signs of help. All we could do was live and walk, step by step, towards the top.

Another day passed on Mid childa as I thought this. Where were we going, or what was waiting for us at the end, they're all just a huge bunch of stuff that we didn't know yet. The road ahead is long, and the light is faint. But—there are some good things too.

As I looked at the huge iron cover, I let my imagination take flight towards the unknown world that I have yet to see.

9 A.M.

Today's weather setting was slightly cloudy, and the morning mist that covered the city still hadn't cleared. The light that shone from outside was reflected off it, coloring the surroundings lemon-yellow.

According to the Mid childa calendar, it was the «Month of the Ash Tree», which meant that we were getting further into fall. The temperature was slightly cold, making this the most refreshing month of the year. But right now, I felt a little under the weather.

I was waiting for Nanoha at the gate plaza in the living area of the seventy-fourth floor. I couldn't sleep last night for some reason, and all I did in my simple bed in Algade was toss about in one way or another. I think I managed to fall asleep a little past three in the morning. There were plenty of features in SAO that helped the player, but sadly a button that could make you fall asleep wasn't one of them.

Oddly enough, the opposite did exist. In the time-related options of the menu, there was something called «Alarm Clock» which forced the player to wake up from their sleep. Of course, the choice of going back to sleep again or not was entirely up to you, but I succeeded in gathering enough will-power to crawl out of my bed when the system woke me up at ten to nine.

Perhaps to the blessing of the lazier players, there was no need to wash or change in the game—although some of the stranger players seem to bathe on a daily basis. But since replicating a completely liquid environment was hard even for the Nerve Gear, it couldn't reproduce a real bath perfectly. After waking up a little too close to the meeting time, I put on all my equipment in twenty seconds and walked out of Algade's teleport gate with a slight sway out to where I, slightly annoyed by the lack of sleep, waited for her, but-

"She's late…"

The time was already ten past nine. Diligent gamers were appearing from the gate and walking towards the Labyrinth area one after another.

With nothing much to do, I looked at the labyrinth map and the completion rates of my skills, stats that I already knew mostly by heart.

Ahh, I wish I had a portable game console or something.

I was rendered speechless by that sudden thought. To want to play a game within a game, I was getting worse.

Should I just go back and sleep... I even started thinking. Another blue teleport effect appeared inside the gate for the god knows how many time. I watched without much expectation. But then-

"Kyaaaaa! Please get out of the way-!"

"Ahhhhhh!?"

Usually players who teleported appeared on the ground, but this person appeared a meter off it and—flew through the air and headed straight for me.

"Huh, huh…!?"

Without any time to catch or dodge, we collided and fell to the ground in a single heap. I hit the back of my head on the stone ground, hard. If I wasn't inside of a settlement, a couple of dots from my HP would have been taken away.

This meant—that this idiot player had jumped into the gate from the other side and appeared like that here, most likely. The thought flashed calmly though my mind. Still a bit dizzy, I raised my arm and grabbed the idiot on top of me in an attempt to push the person off.

"…hmm?"

The feeling of something strange and full registered in my hand. I squeezed it twice, and three times to figure out what the springy and rich feeling in my hand was.

"K-Kya-!"

Suddenly, a loud scream sounded in my ear and my head hit the ground again. At the same time, the weight lifted from my body.

In front of me, there was a female player that was sitting on the ground, wearing a red on white knight uniform and a knee-length miniskirt, with a silver-white rapier in her scabbard. And for some reason, she was glaring at me with an inexplicable anger evident in her eyes. Her face was experiencing the highest degree of the emotion effect and was red all the way to her ears, and her two arms were crossed protectively against her chest-…chest…?

I was immediately able to guess what I had been grabbing with my right hand. At the same time I realized, a little too late, the dangerous situation that I was in. All the ways to avoid dangerous situations that I had trained into my head had all but vanished. While opening and closing my right hand, not knowing what to do with it, I opened my mouth.

"H-Hey. Good morning, Nanoha."

The anger in her eyes seemed to flare brighter. Those were definitely the eyes of someone who was contemplating about drawing their weapon.

I started inspecting the need for the «escape» option that had flashed to mind when the gate shined blue again. Nanoha looked back with a surprised expression and got up quickly before hiding behind me.

"Eh…?"

Without knowing why, I stood up as well. The gate shined brighter when a newcomer appeared in the middle of it. This time, the player had both feet on the ground.

As the light faded, I recognized the person inside, and the impressive white cape with a red symbol on it. The man, who wore a KoB uniform and carried a sword that seemed to be a little overly decorated, was the long haired bodyguard who had been following Nanoha around yesterday. His name was Cradil or something.

Cradil's frown grew deeper as he saw Nanoha behind me. He didn't look all that old. He would only be around his early twenties, but the wrinkles on his face made him look older. He gritted his teeth so hard that we could almost hear it and then spoke with a barely concealed anger.

"N…Nanoha-sama, you shouldn't be acting on your own like this…!"

As I heard the voice that bordered on hysterical, I thought This is going to get complicated and pulled in my shoulders. With his heavily lidded eyes glowering, Cradil spoke again.

"Now, Nanoha-sama, let's return to HQ."

"No. I'm not even on duty today! …and Cradil, why were you standing in front of my house so early in the morning?"

Nanoha replied angrily behind me.

"Fufu, I knew that such a situation would occur, so I started going to Salemburg to watch your house starting a month ago."

I could only be surprised at Cradil's proud answer. Nanoha froze too. After a long silence, she asked with a forced voice.

"That…that's not part of the leader's orders is it…?"

"My duty is to escort you, Nanoha-sama. Watching your house is included in…"

"What do you mean included, idiot!"

Cradil walked over with his expression becoming even more angry and annoyed, then pushed me out of the way and grabbed Nanoha's hand.

"You don't seem to understand. Please don't be like this… now let's go back to HQ."

Nanoha appeared to have been frightened by the voice that seemed to hide something barely concealed behind it. She threw an imploring look my way.

To tell the truth, I was wondering whether to run away like I always did until that point. But the moment I saw Nanoha's eyes, my hand started moving by itself. I grabbed Cradil's right arm, the one that was grabbing Nanoha, and increased the strength in my hand until just before the crime prevention code would be invoked.

"Sorry, but I'm borrowing your sub-captain for today."

The line sounded stupid even to my ears, but I couldn't back down now. Cradil, who had been purposefully ignoring me until now, scrunched his face up and pulled his hand away.

"You…!"

He screamed in a voice that seemed to rasp. Even if the system overstated expressions, there was still something that seemed strange behind his voice.

"I'll guaranteeNanoha's safety. It's not like we're going to fight a boss today. You can return to HQ by yourself."

"D…Don't kid with me! Do you think a pathetic player like you can protect Nanoha-sama!"

"Better than you can, most probably."

"Y-You insolent fool…! I-If you can talk big, I suppose you're prepared to back it up…?"

Cradil, his face now white, called the menu screen with his right hand and manipulated it quickly. Soon a semi-transparent system message appeared in front of me. I could guess what it is before I even read it.

[A 1-on-1 duel has been requested by Cradil. Do you accept?]

Below the expressionlessly shining letters were the Yes/No buttons and a number of other options. I glanced sideways at Nanoha. She couldn't see the message but seemed to have guessed what was going on. I thought that she would try and stop me, but surprisingly she nodded slightly with a rigid expression.

"…is it okay? Won't this pose a problem in the guild…?"

Nanoha answered to my whispered question with one of her own.

"It's fine. I'll report this to the leader myself."

I nodded in reply, then pressed Yes and chose the «First Strike Mode» from the options.

This was a duel that could be won either by landing the first clean hit or by reducing the opponent's HP to half. The message changed to [You have accepted the 1-on-1 duel with Cradil], and a countdown of 60 seconds appeared below it. The moment that number reached zero, the HP protection system that was in effect within the town would be momentarily withdrawn, and he and I would be able to cross swords until one of us won.

Cradil seemed to have made his own interpretation of Nanoha's consent.

"Please watch, Nanoha-sama! I will prove that there is no one better than I to escort you!"

He shouted with an expression that barely concealed his delight, drawing his huge two- handed sword from his waist, and positioning himself with a clanking sound.

I made sure that Nanoha had moved further away before I drew my one-handed sword from my back. As one would expect from a member of a famous guild, his sword looked much better than mine. It wasn't just the size difference between a one-handed and a two-handed sword, but that while my sword was a simple and practical weapon, his had been fully decorated by a top class craftsman.

As we stood about five meters apart, waiting for the countdown to finish, people started crowding around us. It wasn't all that strange. This was a gate plaza in the middle of a town, and both of us were pretty well-known players.

"Solo Fate and a KoB member are having a duel!"

As someone shouted that, cheers sounded from here and there. Since duels were usually for comparing your skills with a friend, all of the spectators cheered and whistled, ignorant to the situation that had led up to this.

But as the timer counted down, all of this started to fade away. I felt a cold thread pass through my body like when I was fighting a monster. I focused in order to read the atmosphere around Cradil, who was looking about here and there with glances of annoyance, and examined his stance and the way his feet moved.

Humans were far more liable to show certain habits when they were about to use a skill. Whether it was a charging or defending skill, or if it would start low from the ground or from high up, if their body revealed this kind of information, then it became a critical weakness.

Cradil's sword was leaning a bit back from the middle of his body and his lower body was bent down. It was clearly a sign that he was going to use a high aiming charge-type attack. Of course, it could have been a feint. I myself was actually posing with my sword in a low and relaxed posture, giving the impression that my first attack was going to be a weak blow to his lower body. You could only rely on your experience and "feel" when searching for feints.

As the countdown went down to single digits, I closed the window. I couldn't even hear the noise around me anymore.

I saw Cradil, who had been rapidly switching his gaze from me to the window and then back, went still while the muscles of his body tensed. The word [DUEL!] appeared in the space between us, and I jumped. Sparks flew from the sole of my boot, and the air whistled by as my shoulder cut through it.

Not even a moment had passed before Cradil's body began to move as well. But there was an expression of surprise on his face, since I had shattered his expectations of a low, defend-type attack skill and charged.

Cradil's first attack was, as I had guessed, a high hitting two-handed sword charge skill: «Avalanche». If the guard was too weak, the defender might be able to block the blow but wouldn't be able to counterattack straight away due to the impact; meanwhile, the player who used it would be able to buy time to ready his stance again, since the charge widened the distance between them. It was a very good high level skill. Well, at least against monsters.

I, who had already read what Cradil was going to do, chose the charge-type skill «Sonic Leap». If we both kept charging, our skills would collide.

If we were to look at only the strength of the skill, his was stronger, and the game would favor the heavier skill if two attacks collided. In this case my sword would be deflected, and his skill would hit me, weakened but still enough to end the duel. But I wasn't after Cradil himself.

The space between us narrowed quickly. But my perception had been quickened as well, and it felt like time had slowed down. I wasn't sure if this was a result of the system, or if it was an ability that humans naturally had. All I knew was that I could see all of his movements.

The sword, which was leaning backwards, started giving off an orange light and sped towards me. His stats must have been pretty high, as one would expect from the best guild, since the time it took for the skill to start was shorter than I expected. The brightly shining blade rushed in. If I hit that skill straight on, there was no doubt that I'd receive enough damage to end the duel. Cradil's face showed his ecstasy at his apparent victory. But-

My sword, with its head-start, moved a little quicker, drawing a slanted yellow trajectory and hitting his sword just before it ended its attack. The game calculated the damage dealt by my sword, producing a huge spark.

Another result of two weapons colliding was «Weapon Break». It only had a chance of happening when a weapon received a heavy blow to a weak part of its structure.

But I was certain that it would break. Weapons with too much decoration had low durability.

As expected—with an ear-wrenching sound—Cradil's two-handed blade broke. There was an effect like an explosion.

We passed by each other in mid-air and landed at where the other had jumped. The broken half of his sword spun in mid-air, reflecting the sunlight, before it dug itself into the stone ground between us. After that, both the broken half and the half remaining in Cradil's hands shattered into countless polygon fragments.

Silence overtook the plaza for a while. All of the spectators were frozen with their mouths wide open. But after I landed, stood up, and habitually swung my sword from left to right, they started cheering.

"Awesome!"

"Was she actually aiming for that!?"

As I heard everyone starting to critique the short fight, I sighed. Even if it was a single skill, revealing even one card from my hand wasn't something to be happy about.

With the sword in my hand, I started walking over to where Cradil was sitting with his back turned. That back, covered by the white cape, was shaking violently. After loudly sheathing my sword on purpose, I said in a small voice.

"If you want to come again with a new weapon, I'll fight you again…but this is enough right?"

Cradil didn't even try to look at me. He shook with both hands on the ground as if he was sick. But soon, he said with an almost creaky voice, "I resign." He could have just said I give up or I lose in Japanese.

Immediately afterwards, a row of purple lines appeared exactly where it had first shown when the fight started, this time proclaiming the end of the duel and the victor. Another cheer resounded, and then Cradil stood up shakily and shouted at the spectators.

"What're you looking at!? Get lost!"

Then he turned slowly towards me.

"You… I'm going to kill you… I'll definitely kill you…"

I couldn't deny that I was a little freaked out by those eyes.

Emotions in SAO felt a little overstated, but even with that, the hate that burned in Cradil's heavily lidded eyes were scarier than any monster's.

Somebody slid to my side as I stood there in surprise.

"Cradil, I order you as the sub-leader of the Knights of the Blood. I relieve you from the position of bodyguard. Go back to HQ and stay there until there are further orders."

Nanoha's words and expression were both cold. But I felt the distress behind them and unconsciously put my hand on her shoulder. Nanoha leaned her stiffly tensed body a bit.

"…wh…what…this…"

This sound barely reached our ears. The rest, most probably a string of swearing, were lost in his mouth. Cradil glared at us. There was no doubt that he was thinking about attacking us with his reserve weapon, even though he knew that the crime prevention code would stop him.

But he just barely managed to restrain himself and took out a teleport crystal from inside his coat. He raised it, gripping it so hard that I thought it was going to break, and he muttered "Teleport…Grandum." He was glaring at us with hate even as his body disappeared in a flurry of blue light.

As the light disappeared, a bitter silence spread across the plaza. The spectators seemed stunned by Cradil's rage but soon left in their small groups. Nanoha and I were eventually the only ones left.

What should I say? That thought went round and round in my head, but since I'd been living by myself for two years, nothing useful came to mind. I didn't even feel like making sure if I did the right thing.

Then finally, Nanoha stepped away and started speaking with a fragile voice.

"…sorry. I got you mixed up in this."

"No…I'm fine, but will you be okay?"

Shaking her head slowly, the sub-leader of the greatest guild gave a spirited but weak smile.

"Yeah, I think that I'm to blame as well for enforcing the rules on everyone so harshly in order to clear the game quicker…"

"I think…that you can't do anything about that. If they didn't have somebody like you, the pace would be much slower. Well, that's not really something a lazy solo like me should be saying…ah, I didn't mean that."

I didn't even know what I was trying to say anymore, so I started saying anything that came off the top of my head.

"…so, nobody would be able to say anything about, you…taking a breather with somebody as thoughtless as me."

To this Nanoha blinked a few times with a confused expression, then she smiled somewhat bitterly and softened her face.

"…well, I'll say thanks. Then I'll enjoy today as much as I can. I'll entrust you with the position of forward."

She turned energetically and started walking down the road that led out of the town.

"What? Hey! Forward is supposed to be taken in turns!"

Even as I complained, I let out a sigh of relief and followed the softly waving chestnut-brown hair.

The air surrounding the path through the forest was warm. It was almost as if the dark feeling that had been present here last night was just an illusion. The morning sun shined through the branches, making golden pillars of light which butterflies fluttered through. Sadly, these were only visual effects, so you couldn't catch one even if you chased it down.

As she crunched through the soft undergrowth, Nanoha said teasingly.

"You always wear the same things."

Ah.

I looked down at my body: a slack black leather jacket, a pair of pants, and a shirt of the same color. I had virtually no metal armor equipped.

"Well, so what? If you have enough money to spend on clothes, it's better to buy something to eat…"

"Is there a practical reason that you're wearing all black? Or is it just character expression?"

"W-Well, what about you? You're always wearing that white and red thing…"

As I spoke, I started scanning the area by force of habit without even thinking about it. There weren't any monsters around. But-

"I can't help it. This is the guild unifo…huh? Why?"

"Wait a bit…"

I raised my right hand slightly and cut Nanoha off. There was a player at the edge of my scan area. As I focused on the area behind me, numerous green cursors started flashing, showing that there were a lot of players there.

There's no chance that they were a group of bandits. Bandits always hunted for players that were weaker than them, so they were rarely seen around the front lines, where all the strongest players were. More importantly, whenever a player commited a crime, their cursor would turn orange and wouldn't turn back to green for a long time. What I was worried about was their numbers.

I called the map from the main menu and put it on show mode so that Nanoha could see it. The map of the area was enhanced by my scan and showed the green cursors. There were twelve of them.

"That's a lot…"

I nodded at what Nanho said. Usually when there were too many members in a party, it became harder to fight as a group, so five or six was the typical number.

"Look at that size."

The crowd of lights that were fast approaching in this direction marched in neat lines of two. Maybe this would happen in a dangerous dungeon, but it was rare to see such a large uniform group on the field.

If we could see the level of the members, we might have been able to guess what they were doing, but players couldn't even see the names of other players that they'd met for the first time. It was a default system that was put in place to prevent players from PKing—player killing—too freely, but it also left us with no choice but to simply guess at their level by appraising their equipment.

I closed the map and glanced at Nanoha

"We'll have to take a look at them. Let's hide behind the trees until they pass by."

"Yeah, you're right."

Nanoha nodded with a tense expression. We climbed up a small mount and crouched behind a shrub that came up to about our heights. It was a good position to observe the group as they passed by.

"Ah…"

Nanoha suddenly looked at her clothes. The red and white uniform was pretty noticeable against the green plants.

"What should I do? I don't have any other equipment…"

The dots were pretty close now. They were getting within seeing distance.

"Excuse me for a bit."

I opened my coat and covered Nanhoa with it as well. Nanoha glared at me for a bit but allowed me to cover her. The coat wasn't all that good to look at, but it gave a big hiding bonus. With all this, it would be pretty hard to notice us without a high scanning skill.

"Well, it's not that good to look at, but it's pretty useful right?"

"I don't know! …shh, they're here!"

Nanhoa whispered and brought a finger up to her lips. I crouched lower, and the sounds of footsteps reached my ears.

Eventually, we could see the group come up the lane.

They were all warriors. All of them wearing the same black metal armor and green battle garb. Their equipment was all of practical designs, except for a noticeable picture of a castle on each of their shields.

The front six had one-handed swords, and the back six had halberds. They all had their visors down so we couldn't see their expressions. As we watched the twelve players march in perfect order, I even started thinking that they were a group of NPCs.

I was sure now. They were members of the huge group that had made the city on the first floor their HQ: «The Army». I could feel Nanoha hold her breath.

They weren't enemies to normal players. In fact, they could be considered the group that put in the most effort to stop crimes on the field.

But their methods were a little rough, and they were said to attack orange players—who were called that because of the color of their cursors—as soon as they found them and without asking any questions. Then they'd strip the orange players of their equipment and encage them in the dungeons of the Black Iron Castle. The rumors about how «The Army» treated people who didn't surrender yet failed to escape were pretty scary.

They were also known for traveling in huge parties and taking control of entire hunting ranges, so it was common knowledge among the players that they "should never go near «The Army»." Well, they usually operated on the fiftieth floor and below, working on strengthening their group and maintaining order, so it was rare to see them on the front lines-

As we watched silently, the twelve heavily armed warriors disappeared into the forest amongst the clanking sounds of their armor and their boots.

Seeing as all the players had gotten their hands on the software, you could say that everyone trapped inside SAO were all game maniacs, whom were a race that had no connection to the word «Rules» whatsoever. The fact they still showed such orderly movement was amazing. They might even be the strongest unit within «The Army».

After making sure that they had gone out of range on the map, Nanoha and I let out a sigh of relief.

"…the rumor, it's true…"

I whispered to Nanoha with my coat still over her.

"Rumor?"

"Yeah. I heard at the guild meeting that «The Army» was changing how they worked and have started appearing on the higher floors. They were once a group that was trying to clear the game, right? But after the damage they received while fighting the boss on the twenty- fifth floor, they began focusing on strengthening their group and stopped fighting on the front lines. –So, rather than going into the labyrinth in enormous numbers like they used to and causing a huge stir, they've decided to send smaller, more elite units in and try to show that they're still endeavoring to clear the game. The report guessed that the first unit would appear soon."

"So they're advertising their skill. But are they really okay just charging into an unexplored area…? They looked like they have pretty high levels but…"

"Maybe…they're going to try to beat the boss…"

Within every labyrinth, there was a boss that guarded the stairs to the next floor. They didn't regenerate and they were really strong, but the reputation and popularity gained for beating them would be huge. It would be very effective as an advertisement.

"So they gathered those people…? But that's still stupid. Nobody has even seen the boss of the seventy-fourth floor yet. Usually, people keep sending in reconnaissance groups to analyze the boss' strength and fighting patterns."

"Well, even guilds work together to beat bosses. Maybe they're doing the same…?"

"I don't know… Well, they should know as well that going up against a boss like this is meaningless. We should hurry. I hope that we won't cross paths with them in there."

I got up and was a little disappointed that I had to let Nanoha go. Nanoha shivered as she got out.

"It's almost winter now… I should buy a coat too. Which shop did you buy that from?"

"Hmm…it was most probably a player shop in the western area of Algade."

"Then take me there when we're done exploring."

With that said, Nanoha jumped down lightly onto the lane. I followed. Because of the system, this height wasn't a problem for me.

The sun was almost at its highest point. Nanoha and I made our way down the lane quickly while paying attention to our surroundings.

Luckily, we got out of the forest without meeting even a single monster, and a meadow full of blue flowers appeared before us. The lane went straight through the meadow, and at its end the Labyrinth Area stood proudly.

At the highest part of this tower, there would be a huge room and a boss would be guarding the stairs to the next floor—the seventy-fifth floor in this case. If the boss was defeated and someone arrived at the living area of the next floor and activated the teleport gate, then this floor would be cleared.

The «City Opening» would be celebrated by a huge crowd of people from the lower floors that came to see the new city, and the whole place would become alive as if there was a festival. Right now, it had been nine days since people had begun actively exploring the seventy-fourth floor. It was about time that somebody discovered the boss.

The tower was a cylindrical building made out of reddish-brown limestone. It was a place that both Nanoha and I had been in numerous times, but you couldn't help feeling intimidated by its immense size. Yet that size was only one-hundredth of Mid childa. It was a hopeless wish, but, secretly, I wanted to see the colossal floating castle from outside.

We couldn't see the unit from «The Army». They'd most likely already made it in. We walked towards the entrance, quickening our pace unconsciously.

More than a year had already passed since the Knights of the Blood took the position of the best guild.

Since that time, the leader of the guild, the «Man of Legend», and the sub-leader Nanoha the «Flash» both became renowned as two of the best warriors in Mid childa. Now I had a chance to watch Nanoha, who had finished training the skills needed as a rapier-sword fencer, fight against a normal monster.

We were currently in the middle of a fight, and the enemy was a skeletal swordsman named «Demonic Servant». It was over two meters tall, surrounded by an eerie blue light, and held a huge straight sword in its right hand with a round metal shield in its left. Of course, it didn't have even a single muscle, yet, despite that, its strength stat was very high, which made it a hard monster to fight.

But Nanoha didn't give any ground against it.

"Hrrrrgrrrr!"

With this strange cry, the skeleton swung its sword several times leaving a blue line of light in its wake. It was a four-hit combo skill: «Vertical Square». As I watched anxiously from a few steps back, Nanoha stepped left and right, elegantly dodging all the blows.

Even if it was a 2-on-1 situation, we couldn't both fight at once when confronted by a fully armed enemy. It wasn't forbidden by the system, but when two people were too close together in a fight where swords swung to and fro at speeds faster than the eye could follow, it became more of a hindrance than a help. So when partying, a skill that required high levels of teamwork called «switching» was used.

After its full swing, the last blow of the four hits missed, and the Demonic Servant's posture fell slightly off-balance. Nanoha didn't miss this chance and went straight into a counter-attack.

The jabs of the silver-white sword landed one after another, all spectacularly hitting their mark, and the skeleton's HP decreased. Each individual blow didn't deliver much damage, but the number of hits was overwhelming.

After getting hit by three short thrusts, the skeleton's guard went slightly up, and Nanoha switched her style to slash twice at its legs. Then, with her blade tip shining blindingly white, she sent two strong jabs high and low.

It was an eight hit combo. It was most probably the high-level sword skill named «Star Splash». Striking the skeleton accurately with that thin blade, which was usually ineffective against such enemies, was a show of unbelievable skill.

The strength that had reduced about thirty percent of the skeleton's HP was also amazing, but I was lost within the elegance of the actual player. This must be what they mean by sword dancing.

Nanoha shouted at me, who was standing there dumbly, as if she had eyes on the back of her head.

"Fate-chan, switch!"

"Ah, kay!"

I rushed to raise my sword, and at the same time, Nanoha performed a strong stab.

The skeleton deflected the blow with the shield held by its left hand and bright sparks came flying off. But that was an already expected outcome. The enemy was left stunned for a moment after guarding against the strong attack, unable to immediately counter.

Of course, Nanoha was stunned as well after having her attack blocked, but the «gap» was what was important.

I immediately rushed in with a charge-type skill. Making a break point on purpose in the middle of a fight and trading places with a teammate was what was called «switching».

After making sure with the corner of my eye that Nanoha had gotten out of range, I charged fiercely at the enemy. Unless you were a master like her, normal slashing attacks were most effective against opponents with far more «gaps» than this Demonic Servant. In this scenario, the most effective would be impact-type weapons like maces. But I, and most probably Nanoha, didn't have any impact-type skills.

The «Vertical Square» that I used to hit the enemy all four times reduced a lot of its HP. The skeleton reacted slowly. This was because the monsters' AIs have a tendency to delay a moment before responding when the attacker's pattern suddenly changes. Yesterday, I had to invest a lot of time and effort to make this happen with the Lizardman, but when you've got a teammate, one switch was all you needed. This was the biggest advantage of fighting in a party.

I parried the counterattack and started a major skill to end the battle. I delivered a strong, downward strike to the right, then twisted my wrist and swung back up again, retracing the trajectory I went down in with a motion similar to that of a golf swing. Every time the sword hit the enemy's body, which was made completely out of bones, there was the sound of it impacting and a flow of orange light came out.

The skeleton raised its shield to block the blow that it thought was going to come from above, but I went against its expectations and rammed it with my left shoulder. Then I sent a vertical swing at the swaying skeleton, and without pause I rammed it again, with my right shoulder this time. It was a skill that overcame the problem of chaining strong attacks together by combining them with tackles: «Meteor Break». Not meaning to brag, but it was a skill that required unarmed-fighting skills as well as one-hand sword skills.

The enemy's HP took a big hit from all the attacks and was now in the red area. I put all the strength in my body behind the final horizontal left slash of the seven hit combo. The sword flew straight at the skeleton's neck, drawing a shining arc. The bone broke with a snapping sound and as the skull flew up into the air, the body fell to the ground like a puppet that had all its strings cut.

"We won!"

Nanoha slapped my back, where my sword was now.

We pushed the item distribution aside and started walking again.

Until now, we had fought with monsters four times but made it through with almost no damage dealt to us. Since Nanoha's style involved throwing short jabs while my style was to chain large skills, it strained the monster's AI—in the sense of algorithms, not the actual CPU's processing abilities—and allowed our skills to match well. There probably is not much of a difference in our levels either.

We walked carefully through the magnificent hallway that was lined with pillars. There was no chance of being ambushed with my scan skill, but the echoing of our footsteps kept bothering me. There weren't any sources of light in the labyrinth, but the surroundings gave off a faint, mysterious glow, so we could see pretty well.

I carefully inspected the hallway, which was reflecting a soft blue light.

The floor below was a labyrinth made out of reddish-brown limestone. But when we got up, the surroundings were made out of some stone that gave off an almost sticky blue light. The pillars were engraved with impressive but eerie pictures, and a shallow waterway ran by our feet, covering the floor. You could say that the overall atmosphere had gotten «heavier». There weren't many empty spaces left on the map now. If my guess was right, then the area ahead was most probably-

At the end of the hallway, a pair of grey-blue doors stood waiting for us. The carvings on the door were similar to the ones on the pillars. Even if everything was just a world made solely out of data, an inexplicable aura seeped out of those doors.

"…is that…?"

"Most likely…? It's the boss room."

Nanoha held the sleeve of my coat tight.

"What should we do…? Just looking should be fine, right?"

In contrast to these bold words, her voice sounded uneasy. Even if she was a top class swordswoman, it seemed that she still found these sorts of things scary. Well, it's to be expected really. I was scared as well.

"…well, let's prepare a teleportation item just in case."

"Yeah."

Nanoha nodded and took out a blue crystal from her pocket. I prepared my item too.

"Ready…? I'm going to open it…"

With my right arm tightly gripped by Nanoha, I touched the iron door with my left hand which held the crystal. If this was the real world, my palms would be flooding with sweat right now.

As I slowly put more strength into my hand, the door, which seemed to be at least twice my height, opened with surprising ease. Once it started moving, the two doors opened so quickly that we became a little bewildered. As Nanoha and I stood there holding our breaths, the huge doors finished moving with a final crash and revealed to us what was inside.

-Or so we thought; it was totally dark inside. The light that was filling the hallway we were in didn't seem to reach the end of the room. The thick cold darkness didn't reveal anything no matter how much we stared.

"…"

As soon as I opened my mouth, two white-blue fires whooshed to life a little further in, then another pair and another pair.

Whoooooosh… With this continuous sound, a path leading to the center of the room was completed in the blink of an eye. At its end, a bigger pillar of fire blazed upwards, and the rectangular room was filled with blue light. It was quite spacious. It seemed that all of the blank space on the map had been this one room.

Nanoha hung onto my right arm as if to keep her nervousness at bay, but I didn't have enough room in my head to enjoy that feeling. This was because, just behind the pillar of fire, a huge shape had begun to appear.

The enormous body was covered with bulging muscles. Its skin was dark blue, and the head resting above its thick chest plates was not a man's, but a mountain goat's.

Two curved horns towered on either side of its head. Its eyes, also burning bright blue, were locked on us. Its lower body was covered in navy-blue fur and couldn't be seen very clearly behind the fire, but it seemed that it was also that of an animal. To put it simply, it was a demon in every sense of the word.

There was a fair distance from the entrance to the middle of the room where it stood. Despite that, we stood frozen in place, unable to move even a muscle. Out of all the monsters we had fought against up until now, this was the first demon-shaped one. It was something that I had gotten used to thanks to the countless RPGs that I had played. But now that I actually saw it, I couldn't hold the fear that rushed up from inside my body.

I hesitantly focused my gaze and read the words that had appeared: «The Gleameyes». It was undoubtedly the boss of this floor. The "The" in front of its name was proof of this. Gleameyes—eyes that gleamed.

When I read this far, the blue demon suddenly started shaking its long snout and began screaming. The blue fires shook violently and vibrations went through the floor of the room. Fiery breaths erupted from its nose and mouth as it raised its sword. Then the blue demon started charging straight for us at an unbelievable speed—causing the ground to shake— without giving us time to even think.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

"Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

As we started screaming at the same time, we turned a full one hundred eighty degrees and ran as fast as we could. We knew that in theory, the boss couldn't come out of its room, but we just couldn't stay there. Entrusting our bodies to the dexterity stats that we'd trained up until now, we ran like a gust of wind down the hallway.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter No 4

Without even resting to take a breath, Nanoha and I ran to the safe zone that was set up somewhere in the middle of the Labyrinth Area. I had the feeling that we'd been targeted by monsters several times along the way. But to tell the truth, we weren't in the right state of mind to fight them.

We burst into the large room that had been designated as the safe area and slid to the floor with our backs side-by-side, leaning against the wall. After releasing a huge breath, we looked at each other's face and…

"…ha."

Both of us started laughing at the same time. If we had checked the map, we would have known straight away that the boss hadn't come out of its room. But we hadn`t thought of stopping to check.

"Ahahaha, ah—we ran away really fast!"

Nanoha laughed in an exhilarated tone.

"It's been a long time since I've run like that, as if my life depended on it. Well, you were even more exaggerated than me!"

"…"

I couldn't contradict that. Nanoha kept laughing at my sullen face. It took her a lot of effort to stop; and then she said,

"…that, looked pretty hard."

Nanoha said, her face becoming serious.

"Yeah. It looked like it had only a great-sword as its weapon, but it should have special attacks as well."

"We'll have to gather a lot of forwards with high defense and keep switching."

"We'll need about ten people with shields… Well, for the moment we should just keep jabbing at it and work out how it fights."

"A…shield."

Nanoha looked my way thoughtfully.

"Wh-What's the matter?"

"You're hiding something."

"What do you mean all of a sudden…?"

"But it's weird. The biggest advantage of using one-handed swords is being able to hold a shield with the other hand. But I've never seen you with one. I don't, because it would slow my attack speed, and some people don't because they're more worried about style. But you're neither of those… It's suspicious."

She was spot on. I had a hidden skill. But I'd never used it even once in front of other people.

It wasn't only because skills were an important way to survive, but also because I thought it would make me stand out even more if it had become known.

But, if it was her—even if she found out, it should be okay…

I opened my mouth thinking this.

"Never mind, it doesn't matter. Digging around about other's skills is rude anyhow."

She just laughed it off. Now that I had lost my chance, I simply mumbled a few words in my mouth. Then, Nanoha's eyes grew wide after checking the time.

"Ah, it's already three. It's late, but let's eat lunch."

"What!?"

I couldn't hide my excitement.

"I-Is it handmade!?"

Nanoha smiled wordlessly and quickly manipulated her menu. After getting rid of her glove, she called forth a small basket. So there was definitely one good thing about partying with her—as I thought this rudely, Nanoha suddenly glared at me.

"…what bad ideas were you thinking just now?"

"N-Nothing. More than that, let's eat."

Nanoha pouted, but nevertheless took two paper packages out of the basket and then handed one over to me. I opened the package and found a sandwich made with lots of vegetables and grilled meat stuffed between two thin slices of round bread. An aroma similar to pepper came from it. Suddenly, I felt really hungry and I took a large bite.

"It's…really good…"

I bit into it twice, thrice in a row, and then uttered my sincere appreciation. The shape seemed somewhat European, like the food that the NPC restaurants offered, but the taste was different. The slightly sour and sweet flavor was definitely similar to the Japanese fast foods that I had eaten until two years ago. I ate the huge sandwich quickly, feeling like I was going to cry from the nostalgic taste.

After finishing the last piece and downing the tea that Nanoha gave me, I finally gave a sigh.

"How did you manage this flavor…?"

"It's the result of a year of training and experimentation. I made it after analyzing the data on how alllllllll of the herbs affect the taste reproduction engine. This is glogwa seed, shuble leaf, and calim water."

As Nanoha said this, she took out two small bottles from the basket, opened one of them, and stuck her index finger in. The finger came out with some indescribable substance on it that was sticky and purple. Then she said,

"Open your mouth."

I didn't know what it was, but as I opened my mouth on reflex, and Nanoha flung the substance into it. The gooey substance flew into my mouth accurately and its flavor amazed me.

"…It's mayonnaise!"

"Those are abilpa beans, sag leaves, and uransipi bones."

The last one sounded like the ingredient for an antidote, but the liquid flew into my mouth before I had any time to think about it. Its taste shocked me even more than the previous one. This was definitely soy sauce. I was so ecstatic that I grabbed Nanoha's hand and put her finger in my mouth.

"Kya!"

She screamed and snatched her hand out while glaring at me. But then she started laughing at my expression.

"That's what I made the sandwich out of."

"…it's amazing! Perfect! You could make a fortune with this!"

To tell the truth, the sandwich tasted even better than the Ragout Rabbit meal I had yesterday.

"R-Really?"

Nanoha smiled sheepishly.

"No, it'd be better not to sell them. I can't let my share disappear."

"Uwa, you're so greedy! …if you want, I'll make it again for you sometime."

She added the last bit quietly and leaned slightly against my shoulder. As a calm silence filled the room, I even forgot that this was the front lines, a place where we fought with our lives at stake.

If I could eat this sort of thing every day, I could steel my resolve and move to Salemburg…right next to Nanoha's house… I started thinking this without realizing it, and just as I was about to say this out aloud-.

Suddenly, the clanking sound of armor heralded the arrival of another group of players. We quickly widened the distance between us.

I glanced at the leader of the six-person party and relaxed my shoulders. She was the katana- wielder that I had known for the longest time in Mid childa.

"Oh, Fate! It's been a while!"

I stood up and greeted the slightly smaller person who had started to walk this way after recognizing me.

"You're still alive, Hayate?"

"You're as foul-mouthed as ever. Why are you of all people in a par-ty…"

The katana-wielder's eyes went wide under her bandana as she saw Nanoha, who had stood up after quickly packing away her things.

"Ah-, …you've probably already met each other during the boss fights, but I'll introduce you two anyway. This here is Hayate from the guild «Fuurinkazan», and this is Nanoha from «Knights of the Blood»."

Nanoha nodded lightly when I introduced her, but Hayate just stood there, both her eyes and mouth wide open.

"Hey, say something. Are you lagging?"

After I jabbed her from the side, Hayate finally closed her mouth and introduced herself in the politest way possible.

"H-Hello! I'm just a girl c-c-called Hayate! Beautiful! Eighteen!"

As Hayate said something stupid in her confusion, I jabbed her side again, with more strength this time. But even before Hayate finished talking, her party members had rushed up and began to introduce themselves.

They said that all the members of «Fuurinkazan» had known each other even before SAO had started. Hayate had protected and guided all of them, without losing even a single member, until each of them had become a capable player of the front lines. She had managed to bear the weight that I had run away from in fear two years ago—the day that this death game began.

Ignoring the self-hatred that had deeply permeated my heart, I started speaking to Nanoha,

"…well, they're not bad people, if you ignore the leader's devilish face."

This time, Hayate stomped down on my foot as hard as she could. Upon seeing this, Nanoha started laughing, unable to hold back any longer. Hayate smiled sheepishly, but then returned to her senses and asked me in a voice filled with murderous intent.

"H-H-How did this happen Fate!?"

As I stood there with no answer coming to mind, Nanoha responded for me in a clear voice:

"Nice to meet you. We've decided to party with each other for a while. I hope we get along."

I was shocked by what I heard. As I thought 'Eh!? This wasn't just for today!?', Hayate and her party made expressions that switched between anger and depression.

Eventually, Hayate glared at me with rage burning in her eyes and growled while grinding his teeth.

"Fate, you bitch…"

I sagged my shoulders and thought that this was going to be hard to get out of. Then…

Footsteps resounded through the same doorway that Fuurinkazan had recently come through. Nanoha tensed at the strangely uniform sound, then grabbed my arm and whispered.

"Fate-chan, it's «The Army»!"

I immediately turned my gaze towards the doorway, and sure enough, the heavily-armed unit that we'd seen in the forest came into sight. Hayate raised her hand and got her five companions to back into the wall. The group that marched into the room, still in its twin column formation, was no longer as orderly as they had been in the woods. Their footsteps were heavier, and the expressions under their helmets seemed very tired.

They stopped at the wall opposite from us in the safe area. The man in front gave the order "dis-missed," at which point the other eleven people collapsed onto the floor. The man then walked towards us without even glancing at them.

Now that I looked carefully, his equipment was somewhat different from the others. His armor was very high in quality, and a crest in the shape of Mid childa was engraved onto the chest—something none of the other eleven had.

He stopped in front of us and took off his helmet. He was pretty tall and appeared to be somewhere in his late thirties. He had a sharp face, very short hair, a pair of sharp eyes below his thick eyebrows, and a mouth that was tightly shut. He swept across us with his eyes, and then started speaking to me, who was the one in front of our group.

"I'm Lieutenant Colonel Cobert of the Mid childa Liberation Army."

What the hell? «The Army» was originally a name that people had started calling them as a way of making fun of them. When did it become their official name? And «Lieutenant Colonel»? Feeling annoyed, I answered concisely:

"Fate, Solo."

He nodded and asked arrogantly:

"Have you mapped the area ahead of here?"

"…yeah. I've mapped the area all the way up to the boss room."

"Hmm. Then I hope you would supply us with the mapping data."

I was surprised by his attitude. But Hayate, who was behind me, had gotten angry.

"What? Supply you with it!? You bastard, do you even know how hard mapping is!?"

She shouted in a hoarse voice. Maps of unexplored areas were important information. They could also be sold to treasure hunters, who sought out locked treasure chests, at high prices.

As soon as he heard Hayate's voice, the army guy raised one of his eyebrows and announced loudly.

"We are fighting for the freedom of players like you."

He thrust his chin forward and continued.

"It is your duty to cooperate with us!"

-The word arrogance must exist for attitudes like his. The Army hadn't even been on the front lines for a year now.

"Wait a second, how could you…"

"You, you bastard…"

Nanoha and Hayate, who had been standing on either sides of me, both stepped forward with their voices full of outrage. I spread my arms apart and stopped them.

"It's okay. I was going to spread it around when I got back to the city anyway."

"Hey, hey! You're being way too kind Fate!"

"I don't have any plans to sell the maps for money."

As I said this, I opened a trade window and sent the information over to the guy who called himself Lieutenant Colonel Cobert. He took it without any change in his expression and said:

"Thank you for your cooperation."

He replied without a single note of gratitude in his voice, and then turned around to head back.

I said to his back:

"Some advice from me, you're better off not attacking that boss."

Cobert looked back.

"…that is for me to decide."

"We checked out the boss room just a while ago. It's not something you can tackle with just anyone. Besides, your men all seem pretty tired as well."

"…my men aren't such crybabies to be tired out by something like this!"

Cobert emphasized "my men" as he answered with annoyance. But the guys who sat on the floor didn't seem to agree.

"Get up you useless pieces of trash!"

At Cobert's command, they stood up shakily and reformed two columns. Cobert didn't even spare us a glance as he returned to the front of the column and gestured with his arm. The twelve men then lifted their weapons and began to march once again, their heavy armor clanking away.

Although they still had 100% of their HP on the outside, the strenuous fights of SAO left a fatigue that couldn't be seen. Our real bodies in the other world may not be moving a muscle, but the feeling of weariness still stayed until we either slept or rested on this side. Based on what I saw, those Army players were already exhausted, since they weren't used to fighting on the front lines.

"…I wonder if they'll be okay…"

Hayate spoke in a worried voice as the Army members disappeared into the passageway that led to the higher floor and the rhythmic sound of their footsteps vanished from our ears. She really was a good person.

"They're not really foolish enough to go and challenge the boss are they…?"

Nanoha was worried as well. There was definitely something in Cobert's voice that hinted at a sort of recklessness.

"…should we take a quick look at what they're doing…?"

When I said this, not only did Hayate and Nanoha, but even the other five members of her party agreed.

…and they say that I'm too kind…

I thought this with a bitter smile. However, I had already made a decision. I wouldn't be able to sleep tonight if we left the Labyrinth now and heard that they never made it back.

As I quickly checked my equipment and started walking, a sound reached my ears-

I could tell that Hayate was whispering to Nanoha behind me. I was wondering if she hadn't received enough jabs when the content of their conversation surprised me.

"Ah—Nanoha, how should I put this…that girl, Fate, please treat her well. Even though she's not very good with words, isn't very fun, and is a battle-crazed idiot."

I dashed back and yanked Hayate's bandana as hard as I could.

"Wh-What are you talking about!?"

"B-But."

The katana-wielder cocked her head and scratched her cheek.

"It's remarkable that you're partying with someone. Even if it's because you fell for Nanoha, it's still an extraordinary amount of progress. That's why I-"

"I-I didn't fall for her!"

I argued back. But for some reason, Hayate, her party members, and even Nanoha all looked at me with a smile on their face. I couldn't do anything except silently turn back around and keep walking.

Then I heard Nanoha declare:

"Please leave her to me!"

I ran to the passageway that led up to the next floor while making a loud racket with my boots.

Unfortunately for us, we ran into a group of Lizardmen on the way up. By the time the eight of us arrived at the top-floor passageway, thirty minutes had already passed, and we still hadn't caught up to the army members.

"Maybe they've already used their crystals to escape?"

Hayate said jokingly, but none of us believed that they would have done that. As a result, we unconsciously sped up our footsteps as we walked down the long passage.

When we were about halfway down, a sound that confirmed our fears echoed off the walls. We all immediately stopped to listen.

"Ahhhh…"

The faded noise that we heard was, without a doubt, a scream.

But it didn't belong to a monster. We all looked at each other and then started sprinting. Because of our high dexterity, Nanoha and I ran faster than everyone else, and a gap quickly opened up between us and Hayate's group. But this wasn't the time for us to care about that. We dashed like the wind through the shining blue corridor in the opposite direction as we had gone last time.

Soon, the great double doors came into sight. They were already open, and we could see the blue flames flickering inside and a huge shadow moving slowly within its depth. We also heard the intermittent sounds of screaming and metals clashing.

"No…!"

Nanoha screamed with grief and accelerated her speed. I followed closely behind her. Our feet were barely touching the ground, as if we virtually flew through the air. I figured that we had already reached the limits of the system's support. Meanwhile, the pillars on either side of the passage flashed past us.

As we neared the door, Nanoha and I quickly reduced our speed. Sparks flew off our boots, and we managed to stop just barely in front of the gateway.

"Hey! Are you guys alright!?"

I shouted and leaned my body forward for a better view.

Inside—it looked like hell.

Bluish-white flames were burning all across the floor. A huge figure stood straight in the middle of all this, its body shining as if it was made out of metal. That was the blue demon: The Gleameyes.

As The Gleameyes flourished its enormous zanbato-like sword around, a huge flaming breath streaked out of its mountain goat head. The damage dealt to it hadn't even reached one-third of its HP. Across the room from it, there were a bunch of silhouettes, their sizes tiny compared to the demon. They were the army group, and their members were busy scrambling for their lives.

They no longer had any order to speak of. I checked the number of people and immediately noticed that two of them were missing. It would be good if they had escaped by using a teleport item, but-.

Even as I thought this, one of them was hit by the side of the zanbato and went flying. His HP had gone into the red danger zone. I don't know how it had gotten to this situation, but the demon had managed to get in between the Army members and the exit, and as a result they couldn't even flee. I shouted at the player who had fallen.

"What are you doing!? Use your teleport item!"

The man looked my way. His face reflected the bluish color of the flames and was full of despair. He then shouted:

"That doesn't work…! T-The crystals aren't working!"

"Wha…"

I couldn't say anything. Did that mean that this room was a «Anti-Crystal Area»? It was a rare trap that appeared in dungeons once in a while, but it had never appeared in a boss room up till now.

"How can that…!"

Nanoha breathed in sharply. This was a case when we couldn't even just rush in and save them. Then, a player on the other side of the demon raised his sword and shouted.

"What are you saying! The word retreat does not exist for the Liberation Army! Fight! Fight I tell you!"

It was definitely Cobert's voice.

"You bastard!"

I screamed. The fact that two people had already disappeared in a no-crystal area—it meant that they were already dead, already gone. Something that should be avoided at all costs had already happened, and this idiot was still saying those things? I felt my blood boil with rage.

Then Hayate and her party arrived.

"Hey, what's happening!?"

I quickly told her what the current situation was. As she heard it, Hayate's expression got darker.

"Isn't…isn't there anything we can do…?"

We might be able to run in and make a way for them to get out. But since an emergency escape was impossible in this room, we couldn't ignore the possibility that one of us could die as well. We just didn't have enough people. As I struggled with this thought, Cobert had somehow managed to get his men back into order and shouted.

"Charge-!"

Two of the ten had already lost almost their entire HP and were lying on the ground. The other eight had gotten into lines of four with Cobert in the center, who led the charge with his sword raised high.

"No-!"

But my voice didn't reach them.

It was such a pointless attack. If all eight of them ran in together, they wouldn't be able to use their sword skills properly and would only add to the confusion. They should be fighting defensively, rotating in one person at a time to deal damage, and then quickly switching out for the next member.

The demon straightened up and gave a ground-shaking roar before breathing out a blinding jet of fire. It seemed as if the breath counted as a damage-inflicting attack, and the eight slowed as the blue light of the flames engulfed them. The demon seized its chance and swung its huge sword. The body of a person was knocked into the air, flew over the demon's head, and then crashed hard into the ground before us.

It was Cobert.

His HP had vanished. With an expression that didn't even seem to understand the situation, he slowly moved his mouth.

-This is impossible.

He said soundlessly. Then, with a nerve-rending sound effect that pierced our souls, his body had shattered into a swirl of polygons. Next to me, Nanoha gave a short scream at this meaningless death.

With their leader gone, the Army members immediately fell into chaos. They ran around screaming. All of their HP counts were already below the halfway mark.

"No…no…no more…"

As I heard Nanoha's strained voice, I glanced sideways towards her. I immediately rushed to grab her arm...

But I was already too late.

"No-!"

With this scream, Nanoha ran off like a gust of wind. She drew her rapier from thin air and charged at The Gleameyes like a flash of light.

"Nanoha!"

I screamed. With no other choices available, I drew my sword and followed her.

"Eh, whatever!"

Hayate and her party then shouted and followed suit.

Asuna's reckless strike hit the back of the demon while its attention was elsewhere. But its HP hardly decreased at all.

The Gleameyes roared, then turned around and swung its zanbato downwards. Asuna immediately sidestepped to dodge, but she couldn't evade it completely and was knocked down by the shockwave. The second strike then swung towards her without hesitation.

"Nanoha-!"

I felt my body go cold with fear as I flung myself between Nanoha and the blade. My sword barely managed to deflect the attack in time. Then, I felt an impact across my whole body as the shockwave hit me.

As sparks flew off the two blades, the demon's sword hit the floor only a few centimeters away from Nanoha. It dug a huge hole into the ground with an explosion-like sound effect.

"Get back!"

I shouted and prepared for the demon's attacks. Its sword came at me repeatedly with a crushing might that felt like it could take my life with one hit. There wasn't any room for me to even attempt a counterattack.

The Gleameyes' techniques were basically two-handed sword skills. But they were slightly customized, which made them impossible to read. I concentrated fully on defending with sidesteps and parries. But its attacks were monstrously powerful and chipped away at my HP with every passing swing.

"Argh!"

Eventually, one of its strikes accurately hit my body. I felt its stunning impact, and my HP decreased immensely.

My equipment and skills were far from those of a tank. If I kept this up, it would only lead to my death. The fear of dying sent a chill down my body. I couldn't even try to escape anymore.

There was only one thing that I could do. I would have to go against it with everything I had as a damage dealer.

"Nanoha! Hayate! Give me ten seconds!"

I shouted and swung my sword hard to block the demon's blow and make a break point. Then, I flung myself to the ground and rolled away. Hayate immediately took my place and kept the demon back with his katana.

But Hayate's katana and Nanoha's rapier were weapons that relied on speed and therefore lacked in weight. I figured that it wouldn't be easy for them to block the demon's zanbato. As I laid on the ground, I opened the menu with my left hand.

I couldn't afford to make a single mistake now. With my heart pounding against my chest, I began moving the fingers of my right hand. I scrolled down my item list, picked something from it, and equipped it in the blank space on my equipment profile. Then I opened the skill window and changed my weapon skill.

After finishing all this, I touched the OK button and closed the window. I confirmed the additional weight on my back, then raised my head and shouted:

"I'm done!"

I saw Hayate get hit once, and her HP decreased as she stepped back. Normally, she should have used a crystal to heal herself, but that wasn't possible in this room. Now, Nanoha was fighting with the demon, and within just a few seconds her HP had already gone below the halfway mark and turned yellow.

After she heard me, Nanoha nodded with her back towards me and gave a short shout before executing a piercing skill.

"Yaaaa!"

A pink streak of light flew through the air and struck The Gleameyes' weapon, causing sparks to spray out. As a loud noise resounded, the distance between Namoha and the demon widened.

"Switch!"

I didn't miss the opportunity and charged straight at the enemy. The demon quickly recovered from the short stunning effect and raised its sword high up into the air. With the sword in my right hand, I blocked the demon's blade as it came down from a flame-like trajectory. Then, I reached behind my back with my left hand and grabbed the handle of the new sword. I drew it and struck in one smooth movement. The demon's HP reduced noticeably as the first clean hit registered.

"Kwuaaaaa!"

The demon roared with rage and attempted another downward strike. This time, I crossed my two swords and blocked it completely. As its stance became unbalanced, I decided to break free from my defending streak and launched a combo attack.

My right sword slashed horizontally towards the demon's midsection. My left sword followed immediately to cut vertically into its body. Right, left, then right again. I swung my swords as if the nerves in my brain were going into overdrive. The sounds of metal clashing resounded loudly one after another as white lights flared through the air.

This was the extra skill that I had been hiding, «Dual Blades», and the technique I was using was its high-class sword skill «Starburst Stream», a sixteen-hit combo attack.

"Ahhhhh!"

Paying no attention to the few hits that the demon's sword managed to block, I kept on screaming as I hacked away relentlessly with my swords. My eyes heated up, and my vision saw only the demon. Although the demon's sword still struck my body every so often, its impact felt like it was happening in some faraway world. Meanwhile, adrenaline continued to rush through my body, and my brain waves spiked every time my swords hit their mark.

Faster, faster. The rhythm of my swings already exceeded twice the normal speed, but it still felt slow to my heightened senses. I continued my attack at a pace that seemed to overtake even the system's assistance.

"…ahhhhhhhhh!"

With this shout I launched the last of my sixteen strikes, which penetrated The Gleameyes' chest.

"Kkaaaaaaahh!"

When my senses returned, I realized that I wasn't the only one screaming. The huge demon was roaring towards the ceiling as massive breaths streamed out of its mouth and nose.

Then its body froze, and as soon as I noticed that-

The Gleameyes shattered into countless blue shards. Fragments of blue light rained down across the room.

It's…finished…?

Feeling dizzy from the aftereffects of the battle, I habitually swung both of my swords once more before simultaneously sheathing them into the scabbards that lay crossed on my back. I immediately checked my HP. There was a red line with only a few dots left. As I stared at my HP without care, I suddenly felt strength leave my body and collapsed onto the floor without a sound.

My vision faded out into blackness.

Chapter 12

"…-chan! Fate-chan!"

Nanoha's calls, which were almost like screams, forced me awake. As I sat up, pain spiked through my head and caused my face to distort.

"Owww…"

I looked around and saw that we were still in the boss room. Blue light fragments were still floating around the room. It seemed like I had only lost consciousness for a few seconds.

Nanoh was kneeling on the ground, her face right before my eyes. Her eyebrows were tightened, and she was biting her lip. It looked like she was going to cry.

"You idiot…! Why…!?"

She shouted and then jumped into my arms and hugged me. It shocked me enough to make me forget my pain for a moment. I could only blink in surprise.

"…Don't hug me so tightly. You're going to make my HP disappear."

I said in a joking tone, but Nanoha responded with a really angry expression. She shoved a small bottle into my mouth. The liquid which flowed in was a high-quality potion that tasted like a combination of lemon juice and green tea. It should fully heal my HP within five minutes, but my fatigue was going to last a while.

Nanoha checked to confirm that I had drunk all of it. Then, as her face began to scrunch up, she put her forehead on my shoulder to hide it.

I raised my head at the sound of footsteps and saw Hayate approach. She seemed a little apologetic for disturbing us, but started speaking nevertheless.

"We've finished healing all the remaining Army members, but Cobert and two of his men had already died…"

"…yeah. It's the first time since the sixty-seventh floor that someone died during a boss fight…"

"That wasn't even a fight. That idiot Cobert… You can't do anything if you're dead…"

Hayate spat out. Then he took a deep breath, shook her head, and asked me in an attempt to change the mood.

"But back to the topic, what the hell was that just then!?"

"…I really have to explain it to you ?"

"Of course! I've never seen something like that before!"

I suddenly noticed that aside from Nanoha, everyone in the room was looking at me, waiting for my reply.

"…it's an extra skill: «Dual Blades»."

Expressions of amazement rose throughout Hayate's party and the survivors from the Army.

All weapon skills had to be learned in a certain order depending on their type. Take swords for an example; you had to train the one-handed straight sword skill quite a bit before «Rapier» and «Two-Handed Sword» appeared on the list.

Naturally, Hayate was interested, and she urged me to tell the rest.

"The conditions that have to be met are?"

"I'd have told everyone if I knew that."

As I shook my head, Hayate sighed and muttered.

"You're right…"

Weapon skills that didn't have clear conditions for appearing are called extra skills. They were sometimes even called random conditions. An example would be Hayate's «Katana». But «Katana» wasn't all that rare and appeared quite often as long as you kept training the Curved Sword skill.

Most of the ten-plus extra skills that had been found up until now, «Katana» included, had at least ten people who used each of them. The only exceptions were my «Dual Blades» and one other man's extra skill.

These two were most likely limited to only one person, so they should be called «Unique Skill». I had hidden the existence of my unique skill up until now. But from today, the news that I was the second unique skill user would spread throughout the world. There was no way I could hide it after using it in front of so many people.

"I'm disappointed Fate. You didn't even tell me that you had such an awesome skill."

"I would have told you if I knew the conditions for its appearance. But I really couldn't figure out how it happened."

I answered Hayate's complaint with a shrug.

There wasn't a shred of lie in what I said. About a year ago, I opened my skills window one day and found the name «Dual Blades» just sitting there. I really had no clue on what conditions made it appear.

Since then, I only trained it when there was nobody around. Even after I nearly mastered it, I rarely used it against monsters unless it was an emergency. Aside from using it to protect myself in a crisis, I simply didn't like this kind of skill due to the attention it draws.

I even thought that it would be better if another Dual Blades user appeared-

I scratched the area around my ear and muttered.

"…if it became known that I had such a rare skill, not only would people pester me for information…it might attract other kinds of problems too…"

Hayate nodded.

"Online gamers get jealous easily. I wouldn't since I'm an understanding girl, but there sure are plenty of envious people. Not to mention…"

Hayate suddenly stopped talking and looked at Nanoha, who was still tightly hugging me, and smiled meaningfully.

"…well, just consider suffering as another way of training yourself, young Fate."

"So, to you it's just someone else's problem…?"

Hayate bent over and thumped me on the shoulder, then turned around and walked towards the survivors of «The Army».

"Hey, you guys, do you think you'll be able to make it back to HQ by yourselves?"

One of them nodded at Hayate's question. He was a boy who looked like he was in his teens.

"OK. Tell your superiors what happened here today and that they shouldn't do something this stupid again."

"Yes. …and, err…thank you."

"Thank her over there."

Hayate pointed my way with his thumb. The players from the army stood up shakily, turned towards Nanoha and I, who were still on the floor, and bowed deeply before walking out of the room. Once they reached the passageway, they used their crystals to teleport out one after another.

After the blue lights faded, Hayate put her hands on her hips and started speaking.

"Well, let's see… We're going to continue onto the seventy-fifth floor and open the gate there. How 'bout you? You're the hero of the day, so do you want to do it?"

"No, I'll leave it to you. I'm totally wiped."

"If that's the case... be careful on your way back."

Hayate nodded and then signaled to her teammates. The six walked over to the huge door in the corner of the room. Behind it should be the stairs to the next floor. The katana-wielder stopped in front of the door and turned around.

"Hey… Fate. Y'know when you jumped in to save those Army members…"

"…what about it?"

"I was…well, really glad. That's all I have to say. See ya around sometime."

I don't get what she was trying to say. As I cocked my head, Hayate gave me a thumbs-up, then opened the door and disappeared through it with her party.

Only Nanoha and I were left in the huge boss room. The blue flames that had been flaring up from the floor had disappeared some time ago, and the sinister atmosphere that once filled the room had vanished without a trace. The soft light that filled the passageway now flooded this room as well. Not a single sign of the battle remained.

I said something to Nanoha, who still had her head against my shoulder.

"Hey…Nanoha…"

"…I was so scared… I didn't know what I'd do… If you had died."

Her shaking voice was weaker than I had ever heard it.

"…what are you talking about? You were the one who charged in first."

I said this as I softly placed my hand on Nanoha's shoulder. A manner infraction flag would come up if I grabbed her too blatantly, but this really wasn't a situation where I should worry about that.

As I gently pulled her towards me, my ears had almost missed her small voice.

"I'm going to take a short break from the guild."

"T-Take a break… Why?"

"…I said that I was going to party with you for a while… Did you forget already?"

As soon as I heard that…

Somewhere deep within my heart, a feeling that could only be described as a strong longing reached out. It surprised even me.

I—solo player Fate—was a person who had abandoned every other player in order to keep myself alive in this world. I was the coward who had turned her back on her only friend and ran away two years ago, on the day that all of this had started.

A person like me, who didn't even have any right to wish for a comrade—let alone something more than that.

I had already realized this in a painful and unforgettable way. I had sworn never to wish again, never to yearn for the care of others.

But-

My left hand, which had turned rigid, didn't want to let go of Nanoha's shoulder. I just couldn't pull myself away from the virtual warmth of her body.

I buried this huge contradicting conflict inside me with an inexplicable emotion, and then answered with a short reply.

"…okay."

After hearing my response, Nanoha's head nodded slightly on my shoulder.

The next day.

I had been hiding on the second floor of Signum's shop since this morning. I was sitting on a rocking chair with my legs crossed and was drinking a strangely flavored tea, which I figured was probably a defective product. I was also in a rather foul mood.

All of Algade—no, most probably all of Mid childa was busy discussing the events of yesterday.

Floor clearing, which meant the opening of a new city, was already enough to start an exorbitant amount of gossiping. But this time, various other rumors had also been mixed in, like «The demon that wiped out a whole Army battalion» and «The Twin Blade swordswoman that killed the demon by herself with fifty hits»… There should be a limit on how much they can exaggerate these things by.

Somehow they had found out about where I lived. As a result, swordsmen and information dealers had crowded around my house since early morning. I ended up having to go through the trouble of using a teleport crystal to escape.

"I'm going to move… To some super-rural floor, to some village where they'll never be able to find me…."

As I endlessly muttered my complaints, Signum walked over to me with a smile.

"Hey, don't be like that. It's good to become famous for once in your life. Why don't you host a presentation? I'll take care of the tickets and the venue…"

"No way!"

I shouted and threw the cup in my right hand, aiming for the area about fifty centimeters to the right of Signum's head. But I habitually made the motion which activated my Throw Weapon skill and hurled the cup towards the wall at a high speed. The cup left a trail of light before it smashed into the wall with a loud noise. Thankfully, the room was an indestructible object, so nothing else happened other than the appearance of the «Immortal Object» system tag. If I had hit a piece of furniture, it would have been destroyed for sure.

"Ah, are you trying to kill me here!?"

At the shopkeeper's exaggerated shout, I raised my right hand as a sign of apology and leaned back against the chair once more.

Signum was currently examining the treasure I had received from yesterday's fight. Every once in a while, she would make a strange noise, which most probably meant that there were some pretty valuable goods in there.

I had planned to equally share with Nanoha the money I would get from selling the loot, but it was already past the promised meeting time and she still hadn't arrived. I had already sent her a friend message, so she should know where I was…

We parted at the main street teleport gate of the seventy-fourth floor yesterday. She said that she was going to apply for a break and went to the KoB HQ in Grandum on the fifty-fifth floor. I asked her if I should go with her, given the trouble with Cradil and all. But she said it was fine with a smile on her face, so I abandoned the thought.

It was already two hours past the promised time. If she was this late, did it mean that something had happened? Should I have gone with her? I downed the cup of tea in a single gulp in order to calm my anxieties.

Just as I had drained the tea pot before me, and Signum had finished her examination of my items, I heard the sound of footsteps running up the stairs. Then, the door quickly crashed open.

"Hey, Nanoha…"

I had almost said "you're late" but stopped myself. Nanoha was in her uniform as usual, but her face was white and worry shone through her eyes. She held both her hands in front of her chest, bit her lip twice or trice, and then said:

"What should we do…Fate-chan…"

She forced out in a voice that was close to tears.

"Something…bad has happened…"

After drinking some newly-boiled tea, life managed to return to Nanoha's face, and she started explaining a bit hesitantly. Signum had moved back down to the first floor after noticing the atmosphere.

"Yesterday…after I returned to the HQ in Grandum, I reported everything that had happened to the guild leader. Then I said that I wanted to take a break from the guild and then went back home… I had thought that I would get permission during the regular morning guild meeting…"

Nanoha, who was sitting opposite of me, lowered her eyes and grabbed her tea cup tightly before she continued.

"The leader…said that I could take a brief leave from the guild. But there was one condition… He said that…he wanted to have a fight…with Fate-chan…"

"What…?"

I couldn't understand what she meant for a moment. Fight…did that mean a duel? What did a duel have to do with Nanoha taking a break?

When I asked these questions…

"I don't know either…."

Nanoha shook her head while looking at the floor.

"I tried to persuade him that there's no meaning in doing that…but he just wouldn't listen to me…"

"But…this is problematic. For that guy to suddenly present a condition like this…"

I muttered as the image of the guild leader flashed through my mind.

"I know. The leader usually leaves us alone even when we're planning our strategy for clearing floors, let alone everyday guild activities. But I don't know why this time he…"

Although the KoB leader had overwhelming charisma, which attracted the admiration of not only all his guild members but also most of the front lines people, he never gave any instructions or orders. I fought besides him during a couple of boss fights as well and greatly admired his ability to maintain the line without a single word.

For such a guy to put forth an objection with the condition of having a duel with me, just what on earth could it be about?

Even though I was completely confused, I spoke in order to calm Nanoha down.

"…well, let's go to Grandum first. I'll try talking to him directly."

"Yeah… Sorry. I'm always causing you trouble…"

"I'll gladly do anything, because you're my…"

Nanoha looked at me expectantly as I stopped in the middle of my sentence.

"…important partying partner."

Nanoha pouted with dissatisfaction, then revealed a warm smile.

The Strongest Man, The Living Legend, The Paladin, and et cetera— the leader of the Knights of the Blood had so many titles that you couldn't count them with your hands.

His name was Heathcliff. Before my «Dual Blades» became widely known, he was renowned as the only unique skill user amongst the six thousand players of Mid childa.

His extra skill used a sword and shield combination, both of which were cross-shaped, and allowed the user to switch freely between attack and defense. It was named «Holy Sword». I had seen it myself a couple of times and noticed that the skill's most remarkable aspect was its overwhelming defensive strength. Rumors claim that no one had ever seen his HP go into the yellow zone. During the fiftieth floor boss fight which had inflicted heavy casualties on the players, he had managed to hold the line by himself for ten whole minutes. This achievement remained a popular topic of conversation even today.

There was no weapon that could pierce Heathcliff's cross-shaped shield.

This was one of the most widely-accepted tenets within Mid childa.

As I arrived on the fifty-fifth floor with Nanoha, I felt an indescribable nervousness. Of course, I had no intention of crossing swords with Heathcliff. I was merely going to ask him to accept Nanoha's request for a temporary break from the guild; that was my only goal.

Grandum, the living area of the fifty-fifth floor, was nicknamed «Steel City». This was because Grandum, unlike the other cities which were built with stone, was mostly comprised of huge towers that were made of shining black steel. Since the city had a large number of blacksmiths, its player population was quite high. However, there weren't any trees or other greenery alongside the streets, which gave off a feeling that this city was harshly unforgiving in the winter winds.

We came through the gate plaza and walked along the road, which was made with steel plates locked into position with rivets. Nanoha's footsteps seemed heavy; maybe it was because she was afraid of what might happen.

We walked amongst the steel towers for about ten minutes until an even larger tower loomed before us. Silver spears protruded out above the huge gates, while white flags with red crosses swayed in the cold wind. It was the HQ of the Knights of the Blood guild.

Nanoha stopped in front of me. She looked up at the tower for a while and then said:

"Before, the HQ was a small house in a countryside village on the thirty-ninth floor. Everyone always complained that it was too small and crowded. I'm not against the guild expanding…but this city is too cold, and I don't like it…"

"Let's just get this over with quickly; then we can go get something warm to eat."

"You're always talking about eating."

Nanoha smiled and moved her left hand to gently grasp the fingers of my right hand. She didn't even look at me, who was perplexed at her behavior, and just stood there like that for a few seconds.

"Okay, charging complete!"

Then she released my hand and began to walk towards the tower in long strides. I hurried to follow behind her.

After going up the stairs, we came across two wide-open gates, although there were two heavily-armored guard equipped with a particularly long spear on each side. Nanoha walked over to them, the heels of her boots clanking against the floor. As she approached them, both of the guards greeted her by raising their spears off the ground.

"Thank you for your hard work."

With her crisp response and her confident stride, it was hard to believe that this was the same depressed girl who had been in Signum's shop just an hour ago. Following closely behind Nanoha, I passed the guards and entered the tower with her.

Like the other buildings of Grandum, this tower was also built from black steel. Its first floor was a spacious lobby, but there wasn't a single person here right now.

Thinking that the building felt even colder than the streets outside, we walked past the mosaic floor, which had been meticulously constructed from numerous metal pieces, and came to a spiral staircase.

We went up the stairs; our footsteps echoing through the hall. The staircase climbed so high, a person with low vitality stats would have collapsed halfway up. After passing countless doors, I started to worry about how much further we would still have to go. Then Nanoha finally stopped in front of a cold steel door.

"This is…?"

"Yeah…"

Nanoha nodded with an expression of reluctance on her face. But she seemed to have arrived at a decision right away. She raised her right hand, knocked loudly on the door, and then opened it without waiting for a reply. I squinted as bright light poured out from the room.

Inside was a round room that took up an entire floor of the tower. The walls on all four sides were made of transparent glass windows. The light that filtered through them colored the room in a monotone gray.

A huge semi-circular table stood in the center of the room; five men sat in the chairs behind it. I had never seen the four on the sides, but I recognized the one in the middle all too well. He was the paladin Heathcliff.

He didn't look all that imposing. His age was probably around twenty-five. His features were sharp like that of a scholar, and a strand of steel-grey hair hung over his forehead. The richly red robe draped around his tall, thin body made him seem more like a wizard that didn't exist in this world than a swordsman.

But the most prominent features were his eyes. Those mysterious brass eyes emitted a strong magnetism that overwhelmed people. This wasn't even my first time meeting him; but to be truthful, I was still intimidated.

Nanoha walked over to the table, the sound of her boots echoing, and gave a light salute.

"I've come to say my farewell."

Heathcliff gave a bitter smile in response:

"There's no need to rush. Please allow me to talk to him for a bit first."

He looked my way as he said that. I drew back my hood and stood next to Nanoha.

"Is this the first time I've met you outside of a boss fight, Fate?"

"No…we had talked for a while during the sixty-seventh floor strategy meeting."

I answered in a formal tone without realizing it.

Heathcliff nodded slightly and clasped his hands together on top of the table.

"That was a difficult battle. We almost took some casualties within our guild. Even though they call us the top guild, we're always short on people. Yet now you are trying to take away one of our precious top players."

"If she's so precious, how about putting more thought in selecting her bodyguards?"

The man on the furthest right began to stand up at my sharp retort, his expression changing. But Heathcliff stopped him with simple wave of the hand.

"I've ordered Cradil to return to his house and reflect upon his mistakes. I must apologize for the trouble we have caused you. But, we cannot just stand aside and allow you to take our sub-leader away. Fate-"

He suddenly glared at me; his sharp metallic eyes showed an unwavering will behind them.

"If you want to take her—win her with your sword, with «Dual Blades». If you fight me and win, then Nanoha can go with you. But if you lose, then you will have to join the Knights of the Blood."

"…"

I feel like I could finally understand a bit of this mysterious man.

He was someone obsessed with sword duels. Furthermore, he had unshakable confidence in his own skills. He was a hopeless person who could not throw away his pride as a gamer despite being trapped in this inescapable game of death. In other words, he was the same as me.

After hearing Heathcliff's words, Nanoha, who had been silent until now, opened her mouth and spoke as if she couldn't take any more of this.

"Leader, I didn't say that I would quit the guild. I just wanted a temporary leave, to get away and think about some things…"

I placed my hand on Nanoha's shoulder, whose words had become more agitated, and took a step forward. I faced Heathcliff's gaze directly, and my mouth moved almost by itself.

"Okay. If you want to talk through our swords, then I have no objections. We'll decide this with a duel."

"Auu-! Idiotidiotidiot!"

We were back in Algade, on the second floor of Signum's shop. After chasing the curious shopkeeper back to the first floor, I tried to calm Nanoha down.

"I was trying so hard to convince him, yet you just had to say something like that!"

Nanoha was sitting on the armrest of the rocking chair I was on and was using her tightly balled fists to grind against me.

"I'm sorry! I'm reaaaally sorry! I just went with the flow and…"

She finally calmed down after I gently grabbed her fists; but now she was pouting. I had to forcibly keep myself from laughing at the huge gap between her behavior at the guild HQ and that of right now.

"It's fine. We've decided on using first strike rules, so there's no danger involved. Besides, it's not like I'm definitely going to lose…"

"Uu~~~~…"

Nanoha made an angry noise and crossed her thin, long legs atop the armrest.

"…when I saw Fate-cha's «Dual Blades», I thought that your skill was on a totally different level. But it's the same for the leader's «Holy Sword»… One could say that his power was strong enough to destroy the game's balance. Truthfully, I really don't know who'll win… But what are you going to do? If you lose, it doesn't matter if I can't take a break, but you'll have to join KoB, Fate-chan."

"Well, you could say that I would still achieve my goal, depending on how you think about it."

"Eh? Why?"

I had to force my mouth open to respond.

"Err, well, as…as long as Nanoha is with me, I don't mind joining the guild."

In the past, I would never have said something like this, even if it was to save my own life. Nanoha's eyes went wide with surprise, and her face turned as red as a ripe apple. Then, for some reason, she fell quiet, got up from the armrest, and walked over to the window.

From across Nanoha's shoulders, I could hear the everyday sounds of Algade under the setting sun.

What I just said was the truth, but I still felt reluctant about becoming part of a guild. As I remembered the name of the only guild that I had ever belonged to, which no longer exists today, a sharp pain ached in my heart.

'Well, I have no intention of losing…'

I thought to myself, then got up from the chair and walked over to Nanoha.

Soon afterwards, Nanoha rested her head softly against my right shoulder.

REVIEW PLEASE AND I WILL UPDATE SOON…


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The newly opened living area on the seventy-fifth floor was a city reminiscent of ancient Rome. According to the map, its name was «Collinia». The entire city was already filled with activity, thanks to the large numbers of fighters and merchants that have settled in, as well as others who took no part in clearing the game but had come to sightsee. On top of all that, a rare special event would be held here today, so guests had been pouring out of the teleport gate since this morning.

The city was mostly constructed from square bricks of white limestone. One building stood out amongst its temple-like buildings and wide waterways; that was the huge coliseum which towered in front of the gate plaza. It was perfect for holding the duel between Heathcliff and me. But…

"Fire-breathing popcorn for ten Coll a cup! Ten Coll!"

"Cold black beer for sale~!"

Numerous merchants were selling their goods in front of the coliseum entrance; they were calling out to the long line of spectators and selling them strange looking refreshments.

"…this, what on earth is this…?"

Shocked by the sight unfolding before me, I could only ask Nanoha, who was standing beside me.

"I-I don't know…"

"Hey, isn't that a KoB member selling the tickets!? How on earth did it turn into such a large event!?"

"I-I don't know…"

"Is this Heathcliff's real goal…?"

"No, I think that the head of finances, Daigen-san, is the one behind this. He wouldn't miss an opportunity like this."

As Nanoha laughed, I sagged my shoulders and felt completely powerless.

"…let's run away Nanoha. We can go live in some small village on the twentieth floor and plow fields."

"I'm fine with that, but…"

Nanoha then added teasingly:

"You'll make a rea-lly bad name for yourself if you run away now."

"Damn-it…"

"Well, it's your own fault, isn't it? Ah…Daigen-san."

As I lifted my head, I saw a fat man who was waddling towards us; he was so wide that it was impossible to find a person less suited to wear the red-white uniform of the KoB.

With a wide smile covering his round face, he started talking to us:

"Thanks ta Fate-san we're makin' lotsa money! If ya jus' did it once every month I'd be really thankful!"

"No way!"

"Come, come, the waitin' room's over here. Come on, this way please."

I resigned myself to my fate and followed him. I didn't even care about what would happen anymore.

The waiting room was a small place that faced the arena. After Daigen escorted me to the entrance, he said something about adjusting the betting prices and disappeared. I didn't even have the energy to curse him anymore. From the waiting room, I could hear countless indistinct cheers outside. It seemed that the audience seating was already filled.

When only the two of us remained,Nanoha grasped my palm with both her hands and spoke with a serious expression.

"…even if it's a First Strike match, it'll be dangerous if you get directly hit by a strong critical strike. Especially since many of the leader's moves aren't even known, you should forfeit as soon as you feel something is wrong, understood? I'll never forgive you if you do something dangerous again like last time!"

"You should be worrying about Heathcliff more."

I smiled and tapped both of Nanoha's shoulders.

As an announcement declared the start of the duel, the crowd gave off a thunderous roar. I pulled the two swords on my back out by a bit, and then slid them back into their scabbards with a clang. After that, I began to walk towards the square light hoop on the field.

The step seating that ringed the amphitheater was fully packed with people. My guess is that there were at least a thousand spectators. I could see Hayate and Signum on the front rows, screaming dangerous things like "dice him up" and "kill him."

I walked to the center of the arena before stopping. Then, a deep red silhouette emerged from the opposite waiting room, and the cheering became even more intense.

Unlike the normal Knights of the Blood uniform, which was red on white, Heathcliff wore a red surcoat that was the complete opposite. Although he was like me and wore almost no

armor, he held a huge, pure-white, cross-shaped shield in his left hand, which had immediately caught my attention. His sword seemed to be sheathed within the shield, as I could see the cross-shaped handle protruding from its top.

Heathcliff walked casually until he stood right before me. He glanced at the crowd and then spoke with a bitter smile.

"I must apologize, Fate-san. I really had no idea that this was going to happen."

"I'm going to be asking for my share of the money."

"No… After this fight you'll be part of our guild. I'll be designating this duel as one of the guild's missions."

Heathcliff then erased his smile, and his brass colored eyes started giving off an overwhelming energy. Intimidated, I unconsciously took half a step back. In reality, we were probably lying down at places far away from each other, with only digital data being passed between us. But, I still felt something that could only be called killing intent.

My mind went into its battle state, and my eyes received Heathcliff's gaze head on. The loud cheering sounded as if it was moving further away. Before I realized it, my senses had already begun to quicken, and it felt like even the colors of the surroundings had changed.

Heathcliff turned his gaze and walked to a spot about ten meters away from me. He then raised his right hand and manipulated the menu screen that appeared without even glancing at it. A duel message appeared in front of me. I consented and set the mode to first strike.

The countdown started. I could barely hear the shouts around me now.

My blood began to pump faster. I vanquished the last remaining bits of hesitation and let loose my desire to fight. Then I drew my two swords at the same time from behind my back. My opponent wasn't someone I could win against unless I went all out from the beginning.

Heathcliff drew his thin, long sword from his shield, and then held it resolutely as he entered his combat stance.

He stood with his shield turned towards me and the right side of his body away from me. I couldn't feel any forced strength behind his stance. I realized that trying to predict his actions would only confuse me further, and decided to simply charge in immediately and attack with full power.

Even though neither of us glanced at the window, we both kicked off as soon as the «Duel» message appeared.

I lowered my stance as I ran; my body nearly scraping the floor as it glided in.

I twisted my body around right before reaching Heathcliff and swung the sword in my right hand upwards to the left. It was blocked by the cross-shaped shield and sent out a burst of sparks. But my attack was part of a two hit combo. Point one second after the first strike, my left sword slid in behind the shield. It was a Dual Blades dash-type skill «Double Circular».

The strike from the left was deflected by the long sword; its circular lighting effect stopped midway. Although it was disappointing, this move was just a signal for beginning the fight. Using the force of the sword skill, I widened the distance between us and then charged at my opponent again.

This time, Heathcliff countered by charging me with his shield. His right arm was hidden behind his huge cross-shaped shield, making it hard to see.

"Che!"

I dashed to my right in an attempt to evade his attack. I thought that if I stayed on Heathcliff's shield side, I would have enough time to react to his attacks even if I couldn't see the trajectory.

But then Heathcliff lifted his shield up horizontally.

"Haa!"

With this low shout, he executed a piercing attack with his shield. It came at me, leaving a trail of pure white light.

"Ahh!"

I just managed to guard by crossing my two swords. The powerful impact rattled my entire body and sent me flying back by several meters. I dug my right sword into the ground to stop myself from falling over and then flipped in midair before landing.

It was unexpected, but it seemed that the shield itself could also be used as a weapon. It was similar to Dual Blades in a sense. I had originally thought that my overwhelming attack speed would allow me to win in a first strike duel; but it seemed that I was wrong.

Heathcliff dashed towards me, closing the distance between us and denying me of any time to recover. The sword with the cross-shaped hilt in his right hand pierced towards me at a speed that could rival Nanoha the «Flash».

As the opponent started his combo attack, I could only use both of my swords to defend. Before the duel, Nanoha had explained as much as she could about «Holy Sword»; but it seemed that cramming just wasn't enough. Therefore, I could only rely on split-second decisions to block the incoming blows.

After using my left sword to parry the last upward slash of his eight strike combo, I immediately attempted a one-hit sword skill, «Vorpal Strike», with my right.

"Hya…aaa!"

With the metallic noise of a jet engine, the sword skill left a red trail of light before striking the center of his shield. It felt as if I had hit a stone wall; but my hands kept going to finish the strike.

Claang! The sound of the impact rang out, and this time Heathcliff was pushed back. I couldn't completely pierce the shield, but I felt the feeling of having «penetrated» his defense. Heathcliff's HP had been reduced slightly, but not enough to decide the fight.

Heathcliff landed agilely and widened the distance between us.

"…impressive reaction time."

"More like your defense is too perfect…!"

I charged as I said this. Heathcliff also raised his sword and closed in on me.

We started trading blows at blinding speeds. My sword was blocked by his shield; his sword was deflected by mine. Various light trails of different colors appeared and faded continuously around us, while the sounds of our weapons clashing shook the arena floor. A minor blow made it through every once a while, and our HP decreased bit by bit. Even if both players failed to make a clean hit, one would win the moment their opponent's HP fell below fifty percent.

But I didn't care about that anymore. I felt myself accelerating in exhilaration, as this was the first time I had faced such a strong opponent since being trapped in SAO. Every time my senses sharpened, the speed of my attacks rose by another notch.

I still haven't reached my limit. I can still get faster. Follow me if you can, Heathcliff!

As I released every ounce of strength at my disposal, I drowned myself in the savage joy of swinging my swords. I was most probably laughing. While the exchange of sword blows intensified, the HP of both sides continued to decrease until they nearly reached the fifty- percent area.

At that instant, Heathcliff's stoic face finally showed a flash of emotion.

What was it? Nervousness? I felt the speed of his blows decrease just a little.

"Haaaa!"

In that moment, I abandoned all defenses and launched an assault with both of my swords: «Starburst Stream». My blades rushed towards Heathcliff like the blazing flames of a solar prominence.

"Argh…!"

Heathcliff raised his cross-shaped shield to guard. But I just ignored it and kept hacking away at him from the right, left, up, and down. Meanwhile, his responses became even slower.

-I can break through!

I was certain that the last strike would breach his defense. With his shield overextended to the right, my attack from the left streaked in, drawing a trajectory of light. As long as this blow lands, his HP will definitely fall below the halfway mark, and I would win the-

Then, at this moment, my entire world shook.

"-!?"

How should I describe it? It was as if some of my time had been taken away from me.

For several tenths of a second, everything around me seemed to freeze; everything except Heathcliff. The shield that should have been on the right suddenly appeared on the left, as if I was watching a stop motion video, and blocked my sword.

"Wha-!"

I was stunned for a fatal moment after the strong attack was blocked. There was no way that Heathcliff would have lost that chance.

The long sword in his right hand launched a one-hit skill, which came at me with a detestable accuracy that would surely decide the match. I fell into an unsightly heap. I could see the purple system message, which announced that the duel had ended, with the corner of my eye.

My battle state had disappeared. I simply laid there, my mind blank, even as the cheering registered in my head once again.

"Fate-chan!"

Nanoha ran over and shook me back to my senses.

"Ah…yeah… I'm fine."

Nanoha looked at my blank expression with worry.

I lost-?

I still couldn't believe it. Heathcliff's unearthly speed during those final moments had gone past the limits of a player—past the limits of any human. I even saw the polygons that made up his avatar distort for a moment because of the impossible speed.

As I sat on the ground, I raised my head and gazed at Heathcliff's face.

But the expression of the winner was angry for some reason. The red paladin glared at us with his metallic eyes, then turned around wordlessly and walked over to his waiting room amidst the thunderous cheering.

"Wha...what is this!?"

"What do you mean? You know what this is. Now come on, get up!"

The things that Nanoha had forced me into were my new clothes. Although it had the same design as the coat I used to wear, it was also blindingly white. There were two small crosses on each of my cuffs and a large one on my back; all three of them were dyed in bright red. It was, beyond any doubt, a KoB uniform.

"...I-I said I wanted something plain..."

"This is already pretty plain. Yeah, it suits you!"

I sank into the rocking chair as all strength left my body. I was still living on the second floor of Signum's shop. The place had already become my disaster shelter, so the pitiable shopkeeper could only sleep on a simple bed on the first floor. The only reason she hadn't chased me out was because Nanoha came every other day to help out with the shop. It was the best advertising opportunity she could get.

As I groaned in my chair, Nanoha came and sat down on the armrest, which had become her designated spot. She rocked the chair with a smile, as if my current predicament was amusing to her, and then clapped her hands together as if she had thought of something.

"Ah, we better say our greetings properly. As a member of the guild, I hope we can get along well."

As she suddenly bowed, I straightened my back to reply.

"I-I hope we get along too...but then again, I'm just a normal member while you're the sub- leader, so..."

I swept my right forefinger down Nanoha's spine.

"I won't be able to do things like this anymore-."

"Kyaa!"

With this scream, my superior jumped up and struck her subordinate's head. Then she walked over to the opposite chair and sat down; her face pouting.

Under the lazy sunlight of late autumn, we went into a short and peaceful lull.

My loss in the duel against Heathcliff had passed two days ago. As I wasn't someone who would go back on her word, I joined the Knights of the Blood as I had agreed with Heathcliff. The guild gave me two days to prepare, so starting tomorrow I would be following their orders to explore the seventy-fifth floor labyrinth.

Joining a guild, huh-.

Nanoha glanced at me as she heard my quiet sigh.

"...you got mixed up in all this because of me."

"Nah, it's fine. It's a good opportunity for me. I was starting to feel the limits of solo playing anyway..."

"It's a relief to hear you say that... Hey, Fate-chan..."

Nanoha's sapphire eyes looked directly at me.

"Can you tell me why you avoid guilds...avoid people...? I don't think it's merely because you're a beta tester or a unique skill user, because you are a very kind person."

I shifted my gaze downwards and slowly rocked my chair.

"...a long time ago...over a year actually, I once joined a guild..."

The words came out so easily that it surprised me. Maybe it was because Nanoha's gaze felt like it would be able to melt the pain that spiked through me every time I thought about this.

"I was offered a spot after I met and helped them by chance in a labyrinth area... It was a small guild with only six members, including me, and it had an interesting name: «Black Cats of the Full Moon»."

Nanoha smiled lightly.

"The leader was a good person. He was a two-handed staves user called Keita. He always thought of the guild members first in any situation, so everyone trusted him deeply. He told me that he was on the lookout for a forward, since most of the members used longer-ranged two-handed weapons..."

To tell the truth, their levels were all much lower than mine. No, I should say that I had leveled too much.

If I had told him my level, Keita would have thought otherwise about inviting me. But I had been getting tired of going into the Labyrinths alone day after day, and the family-like atmosphere of the «Black Cats» had made me envious. It felt like they were real-life friends, as the conversations they had with each other lacked any of the awkwardness and distance that was usually evident in online conversations between players; that had deeply appealed to me as well.

Frankly, I had no right to desire for the care of others. I had lost that right when I decided to become a solo player and selfishly leveled only for myself. But I had quelled my inner voices and joined the guild, hiding both my level and my beta-tester past.

Keita asked me if I could train one of their spear users into a sword-and-shield user. Because then there would be three forwards, including myself, and the guild would make a balanced party.

The spear user who he had entrusted to me was a quiet girl with shoulder-length black hair named Sachi. When we were introduced, she said, with an embarrassed smile, that despite being a long-time gamer, she hadn't been able to make many friends due to her personality. Whenever there were no guild activities, I had hung out with her and taught her how to use her single-handed sword.

Sachi and I were similar in a lot of ways. We were both socially awkward, preferred to wall ourselves in, and yet feared loneliness.

Then one day, she suddenly told me that she was afraid of dying, that she was so scared of this game of death that she didn't want to go out and train.

In response to her divulgence, I could only say "I won't let you die." I couldn't say anything else to her since I was still trying to hide my level. After she heard my response, she cried for a bit before forcing out a smile.

On another day, some time later, the five of us, all of the guild excluding Keita, went into a labyrinth. Keita didn't come with us because he had gone to bargain for a house to use as our HQ with the money that we had managed to save up.

Although the labyrinth we went to had already been cleared, there were still unexplored areas within it. One of the members discovered a treasure chest when we were preparing to leave. I recommended leaving it alone, as we were close to the front lines so the monsters had high levels. Furthermore, I didn't trust the trap dismantling skills of the members. But since only Sachi and I opposed opening the treasure chest, we lost 3 to 2 on the vote.

It was an alarm trap, one of the worst types of traps. As soon as we opened the chest, an ear- splitting alarm sounded, and monsters began to pour in from every entrance to the room. We immediately attempted to escape by teleporting.

But the trap was twofold. The room was an Anti-Crystal Area—our crystals didn't work.

There were simply too many monsters to hold back. The other members fell into complete confusion and ran around aimlessly. I tried to cut a path open by using the high class sword skills that I had been hiding up until now, but the panicked members didn't make it out in time. One by one, their HP fell to zero, and they screamed before bursting into tiny fragments. I thought that I could at least save Sachi and swung my sword endlessly.

But it was too late. I saw Sachi reaching out towards me with her hand while a monster cut her down mercilessly. Her eyes were still trusting even as she shattered like a glass statue and disappeared. She had trusted and relied on me until the very end; but because my words were weak and shallow, they had become nothing more than an empty promise, a lie.

Keita had been waiting for us in the inn that had served as our temporary base with the new HQ keys in his hands. After returning to the inn by myself, I explained to Keita what had happened. He had listened wordlessly until I finished, then asked me:

"How did you survive?"

Then I revealed my real level and that I had been a beta tester.

Keita had glared at me as if I was something disgusting, then said one thing.

-A beater like you didn't have any right to join us.

Those words had stabbed through me as if they were a steel sword.

"...what happened...to that person...?"

"He committed suicide."

Nanoha's body shuddered on the chair.

"He jumped off the edge of the floor. Most probably cursing me...to the very end..."

I felt my throat contract. As I recounted these memories that I had sealed deep inside my heart, the painful emotions of back then returned with perfect clarity. I gritted my teeth. Although I wanted to reach out to Nanoha for comfort, a voice in my mind whispered, "you have no right to do so," which left me with only the option of tightly clenching my fists.

"I had killed them. If I didn't hide the fact that I was a beta tester, I would have been able to persuade them to leave the chest alone. It was me... I'm the one who had killed Keita... and Sachi..."

With my eyes wide open, I forced these words out of my gritted teeth.

Nanoha suddenly stood up, took two steps towards me, and caressed my face with both her hands. She pulled her beautiful face closer to mine with a warm smile.

"I won't die."

She said it in a whisper, yet the voice was very clear. I felt the strength leave my tensed body.

"Because, I'm... I'm somebody who'll protect you."

After saying this, Nanoha brought my head to her chest and embraced it. I felt a soft and warm darkness cover me.

As I closed my eyes, my mind reached over the dark veil of my memories and saw the faces of the Black Cat members; they were all sitting at the Inn's counter, bathed in an orange glow.

I cannot be forgiven. I can never pay the price for my wrongdoings.

Yet despite this, the faces that remained in my memories seemed to be smiling.

On the next day, I put on my blindingly white coat and left with Nanoha for Grandum on the fifty-fifth floor.

Starting today, I would begin my work as a Knights of the Blood guild member. However, in contrast to the usual five-person party, Nanoha took advantage of her power and allowed us to form a two-person party; so in reality, it was no different from yesterday.

But the orders that awaited us at the guild HQ were totally unexpected.

"Training...?"

"Yes. We will make a party of four and go through the Labyrinth Area in the fifty-fifth floor until we reach the living area of the fifty-sixth floor."

The man who said this was one of the four other men who were present at the table when I had talked with Heathcliff. He was a huge man with thick blond curls and looked like an axe wielder.

"Wait, Godfrey! Fate-chan is going to..."

As Nanoha started arguing, Godfrey raised one eyebrow and responded in a confident, if not presumptuous, voice.

"Even the sub-leader must adhere to the rules. I don't mind the party she joins for exploration. But as the commander of the vanguard, I must test her capabilities. Even if she is a unique skill user, we don't actually know if she'll be of any use to us."

"W-With Fate-chan's strength, there's no way she'll be an inconvenience..."

I calmed the agitated Nanoha down before speaking:

"If you want to see, then I'll show you. But I don't want to waste time in such a low-level labyrinth. Would rushing through it in one run be alright with you?"

Godfrey closed his mouth with an expression of displeasure. Then he left after saying:

"Assemble at the west city gate in thirty minutes."

"What kind of attitude is that!?"

Nanoha kicked the steel pillar with her boots in indignation.

"I'm sorry, Fate-chan. Maybe it would have been better if we had run away..."

"If we did that, all the members of the guild would collectively curse me to death."

I smiled and hit Nanoha's head playfully.

"Uuuu, I thought that we would be together today...should I go along with you...?"

"I'll be back soon. Just wait here."

"Yeah...be careful..."

Nanoha nodded reluctantly. After waving my hand towards her, I walked out of the HQ.

But when I arrived at the appointed location—the west gate of Grandum—I saw something even more shocking.

Next to Godfrey stood the person who I least wanted to see in this world—Cradil.

"…what is this?"

I asked Godfrey quietly.

"Hmm, I already know what happened between you two. But since you're comrades within the same guild from now on, I thought this would be a good opportunity to work out the bad blood between you two."

As I watched Godfrey laugh with his head up in the air, Cradil slowly walked towards me.

"…"

I tensed and prepared to react to any situation. Even though we were in a safe area, there was no telling what he might do.

But against all my expectations, Cradil suddenly bowed. He then muttered in a barely-audible voice under his long hair.

"I'm…sorry for causing you trouble last time…"

This time I was genuinely shocked. My jaw dropped in amazement and I was left wordless.

"I won't act so rudely again… I hope you will forgive me…"

I couldn't see his expression under his long, greasy hair.

"Ah…yeah…"

As I forced myself to nod, I wondered what in the world had happened. Did he get a personality altering surgery or something?

"Yes, yes. Well, that's all taken care of now!"

Godfrey gave another hearty laugh. I felt really suspicious; Cradil must be up to something, but I couldn't guess from looking at his lowered head. In contrast to its overstated emotions, SAO had a hard time portraying subtle expressions. I could only accept his apology for now, but I reminded myself not to let my guard down.

The last member arrived after a while, and then we set off for the labyrinth. Just as I began to step into my pace, Godfrey stopped me with a gruff voice:

"Wait… Today's training will be done under the most realistic circumstances. I want to see how well you deal with dangerous situations, so I will be taking all of your crystals."

"…even our teleport crystals?"

Godfrey only nodded in response. I hesitated. Crystals, especially teleport crystals, were the last safety net in this death game. I had never been without them. I was about to refuse, but a problem here might put Nanoha in a problematic situation, so I decided to hold back my words.

Seeing as Cradil and the other member handed over their crystals obediently, I had no choice but to follow. Godfrey even carefully checked my inventory afterwards.

"Hmm, good. Then let's go!"

At Godfrey's order, we walked out of Grandum and journeyed towards the Labyrinth Area that we could see to the far west.

The fifty-fifth floor training area was a desolate wasteland almost devoid of vegetation. I wanted to finish the training quickly, so I suggested running all the way to the labyrinth, but it was rejected by a single wave of Godfrey's hand. It was most probably because he had focused on raising his strength stats and disregarded his dexterity. I could only give up and continue to tread through the endless wilderness.

We ran into monsters a couple of times. But when it came to this, I had no time to wait patiently for Godfrey's orders, so I simply cut them down right away.

Eventually, after making it past a number of tall, rocky mountains, the gray limestone of the labyrinth finally came into view…

"Okay, we're taking a break here!"

After Godfrey announced this in his gruff voice, the party stopped.

"…"

I wanted to just rush through the labyrinth; but since I figured it'd be overruled even if I brought it up, I simply sighed and sat down on a rock. It was already nearly midday.

"I'll hand the food out."

Godfrey then called up four leather pouches and threw them to the members. I caught mine with one hand and opened it without any expectations. Inside were a water bottle and some hard bread that were sold at NPC stores.

I opened the bottle and swallowed a mouthful while cursing my bad luck; I would be eating Nanoha's handmade sandwiches right now if everything had gone as we had planned.

Then, I suddenly noticed that Cradil was sitting on a distant rock. He hadn't even touched his pouch, and those eyes beneath his long hair glanced darkly in our direction.

What on earth was he looking at…?

A cold feeling abruptly passed through my body. He was waiting for something. That something…it most probably-

I immediately threw the bottle away and tried to spit the liquid out of my mouth.

But it was too late. Strength suddenly left my body and I collapsed. The HP bar came up at the edge of my vision; it was surrounded by a green line that wasn't usually there.

There was no mistaking it; it was a paralysis poison.

When I looked around, I discovered that Godfrey and the other member were also writhing on the ground. I immediately reached inside my pouch with my left forearm, but this only intensified my panic. I had already handed all my antidote crystals and teleport crystals to Godfrey. I still had a potion, but it didn't have any effect on paralysis.

"Ku…kukuku…"

Shrill laughter reached my ears. As he sat on the rock, Cradil held his stomach with both hands and bent over in laughter. His heavily lidded eyes revealed the crazed ecstasy that I remembered all too well.

"Waha! Haha! Hyahahahaha!"

He guffawed towards the skies, seemingly unable to control himself. Godfrey stared at him with a stupefied expression.

"What…what is this…? Wasn't the water…prepared by…you, Cradil…"

"Godfrey! Quick, use an antidote crystal!"

After hearing my shout, Godfrey finally began to rummage through the pouch at his side.

"Hya-!"

With a strange scream, Cradil jumped off his rock and kicked aside Godfrey's left hand with his boot. A green crystal rolled out of Godfrey's hand. Cradil picked it up, then stuck his hand in Godfrey's pouch, took out the remaining crystals, and put them into his own pouch.

Everything was over.

"Cradil…what, what are you doing…? Is this some sort of…training exercise?"

"Re-tard!"

Cradil said as he kicked Godfrey, who still didn't understand the situation and muttered these stupid things, in the mouth.

"Argh!"

Godfrey's HP went down a little, and at the same time Cradil's cursor changed from yellow to the orange color of criminal status. But this didn't change anything. There was no way that someone would pass by on a floor that had already been cleared.

"Godfrey-san, I always thought you were an idiot, but I never imagined that you were this hopeless. Is even your brain made out of muscle?"

Cradil's sharp laughter echoed across the wastelands.

"There are still a lot of things that I want to say to you…but it wouldn't do to waste my time with appetizers…"

Cradil drew his two-handed sword as he spoke. He raised it high into the air and stretched out his thin body. Sunlight reflected off the thick blade as he waved it about.

"W-Wait, Cradil! You…what…what are you saying…isn't…isn't this training…?"

"Just shut up and die."

Cradil spat out and swung his sword down without mercy. A heavy and dull noise sounded, and Godfrey's HP greatly decreased.

Godfrey finally grasped the seriousness of the situation and started screaming. But it was already too late.

Twice, thrice, the sword came down with a merciless glint, and Godfrey's HP reduced noticeably with each swing. Then, when it reached the red area, Cradil stopped.

Just as I thought that he wouldn't commit murder no matter how crazy he was, Cradil reversed his grip on the sword and slowly pushed it into Godfrey. As Godfrey's HP went down bit by bit, Cradil began to press his entire weight against the sword.

"Aaaaaaaahhh!"

"Hyahahahaha!"

While Godfrey's wailing became louder, Cradil began mixing in a strange scream of his own. The sword dug into Godfrey's body slowly and his HP reduced at a steady pace-

While the other member and I watched silently, Cradil's sword penetrated completely through Godfrey, and his HP bar reached zero at the same time. Godfrey most probably didn't understand what was going on even as his body shattered into countless shards.

Cradil slowly pulled his sword out of the ground, then spun his head around like a clockwork doll and looked at the other member.

"Ah! Ahhh!"

With these short screams, the member flailed around in an attempt to escape. Cradil then started walking towards him in odd steps.

"…I have nothing against you…but according to my scenario, only I can return alive…"

He raised his sword while muttering to himself.

"Aaaahh!"

"You wanna hear~? You see, our party-"

He swung it down; his ears deaf to the member's screams.

"Was ambushed in the wilderness by a large group of PKers-."

Another swing.

"We fought bravely, but all three had died-."

And another.

"I was the only one remaining, but I drove back the criminals and managed to stay alive before returning to HQ-."

After the fourth attack, the member's HP vanished. A sound effect that sent shivers down my body resonated. But Cradil looked as if he had heard the voice of a goddess. He stood there, in the middle of the explosion of shards, and listened to it with a blissful expression on his face.

It wasn't his first time…

I was sure of this. His cursor may have turned to the orange color of criminals' only moments ago, but there were plenty of despicable ways to kill people without triggering it. However, understanding this fact now didn't solve anything.

Finally, Cradil turned to look my way, with an uncontrollable mirth spreading across his face. He slowly walked towards me, his sword making an unbearable noise as he dragged it along the ground.

"Hey."

He crouched down next to me, who was still sprawled on the ground, and said in a whisper.

"Because of an idiot like you, I had to kill two completely innocent people."

"You seem quite happy about it though."

I responded as I looked desperately for a way out of this situation. The only thing that moved was my mouth and my left arm. Because the paralysis condition kept one from opening the menu window, it also forbade the player from sending any messages. Even though I knew it wouldn't do me much good, I struggled to move my left hand, which was inside Cradil's blind spot, while I continued to talk.

"Why did a person like you join the KoB? A criminal guild would have suited you better."

"Keh, why are you asking something so obvious? It's because of that girl."

He said this with his raspy voice and licked his lips. When I realized that he was talking about Nanoha my blood began to boil.

"You damn bastard…!"

"Woah, why are you glaring at me like that? It's just a game isn't it…? Don't worry. I'll look after your precious sub-leader for you. After all, I have a lot of useful items."

Cradil picked up the poisoned water bottle and then shook it to produce some splashing sounds. Then he gave an awkward wink and kept talking.

"And you just said something very interesting, that a criminal guild would suit me more."

"…well, it's just the truth."

"I was complimenting you. You're pretty sharp."

Kekekeke.

Cradil seemed to be considering something as he laughed. Then, he suddenly unequipped the gauntlet on his left arm. He rolled up the white sleeves of his undershirt and turned his bare forearm so that I could see its underside.

"…!"

When I saw what was there—my breath suddenly stopped. It was a tattoo. The image was a manga-like caricature of an ink-black coffin. A mouth and a pair of eyes formed a grin atop the coffin lid; the white bones of a skeletal arm reached out from inside.

"That…emblem is… «Laughing Coffin»?"

I asked in a dry voice. Cradil gave a smile and nodded in response.

«Laughing Coffin» used to be the biggest and worst PK guild in Mid childa. They were headed by a cold, sly leader and experimented endlessly with new methods of killing people; in the end, the number of players it had killed went into the triple digit figures.

The players once attempted to solve the issue through negotiations, but every messenger had been killed immediately. We couldn't even understand why they PKed, since it only lessened the chances of clearing the game, and because of this we couldn't talk with them properly. Not too long ago, the players who aimed to clear the game had formed a subjugation group that rivaled the boss-killing groups, and finally destroyed their guild after several long and bloody battles.

Nanoha and I were in the group too. But the information had leaked somewhere, and the PKers were prepared and waiting for us. In my frenzy to protect my comrades, I ended up taking the lives of two Laughing Coffin members by accident.

"Is this…for revenge? You're a survivor from the Laughing Coffin?"

I asked with my cracking voice. Cradil virtually spat out his answer:

"Heh, no way. Why would I do something as stupid as that? I joined the Laughing Coffin only recently, and only in spirit anyways. I learned this paralysis technique from them…ah, that's bothersome."

He stood up with an almost machine-like movement and raised his sword up again.

"Well, we've talked for long enough. The poison should wear off soon, so I should finish this now. I've been dreaming of this moment…ever since that duel…"

Fire burned in his eyes, which were opened so wide they became circles. His smiling mouth had stuck its tongue out, and he even raised his heels to stand tiptoed as he prepared to swing his sword down.

Just before he moved, I tossed the throwing pick in my left hand using only my wrist. Although I aimed for the face where the damage was greatest, the accuracy penalty from paralysis caused the steel pick to miss and pierce into Cradil's left arm. Cradil's HP reduced by only a small amount, while I fell into a completely hopeless situation.

"…that hurt…"

Cradil wrinkled his brow and curved his lips upwards, then stabbed my right arm with the tip of his sword. He then twisted it twice, then thrice.

"Argh…!"

Although I didn't feel any pain, an unpleasant feeling of being stimulated in the nerves passed through my entire body alongside the strong paralysis effect. Every time the blade dug into my arm, my HP decreased slowly but steadily.

Still there…? Was the poison's effect still not going away…?"

I gritted my teeth and waited for the moment my body would be freed. The duration of paralysis differed based on the strength of the poison, but most paralyzing poisons wore off in five or so minutes.

Cradil pulled out his sword and then stabbed my left leg. The unpleasant feeling of being paralyzed rushed through my entire body once again, and the system calculated the damage mercilessly.

"Well…? How is it…? How does it feel to know that you're going to die soon…? Tell me… would you…?"

Cradil said this in an almost whisper as he stared intently at my face.

"Say something brat… Cry and scream that you don't want to die…"

My HP fell below the halfway line and turned yellow. The paralysis still wasn't gone yet. My whole body grew colder, as if death was enveloping me with freezing air, its chill slowly crawling up from my feet.

I had seen many players die in SAO. They all had the same expression on their faces as they shattered into countless fragments and disappeared; it was always the same simple expression of pondering, one that asked, "am I really going to just die like this?"

It was most probably because, deep within our hearts, none of us wanted to accept the absolute rule of the game. We simply didn't want to believe that death in the game meant an actual death.

We all held a hopeful speculation, that "maybe we'll just return to the real world when our HP reaches zero and we disappear." Of course, you had to personally die to find out what would actually happen. If you think about it like that, then death would be one of the ways to escape this game-.

"Hey, hey, say something. I'm really killing you here."

Cradil pulled his sword out of my leg and stabbed my stomach this time. My HP decreased significantly and went into the red danger area. But it felt like this didn't concern me, as if it was all happening in another faraway world. Even as I was being tortured by the sword, my mind was embarking down a dark path, as if a heavy and thick cloth was gradually covering it.

But then—a strong fear suddenly clenched my heart.

Nanoha. If I disappeared and left her in this world, Nanoha would fall into Cradil's hands and endure the same pain as me. That possibility formed an unbearable pain which shocked me back into consciousness.

"Kaaaah!"

I opened my eyes, grabbed the sword that was buried in my stomach, and started pulling it out with all the strength I had. I had only about ten percent of my HP left. Cradil then shouted in surprise:

"Huh…huh? What's this, you're scared of dying?"

"Yeah…I…can't die yet…"

"Heh! Hyahaha! That's more like it!"

Cradil laughed like a freakish bird and put his weight behind the sword. I strained against it with one hand. The system performed a set of complicated calculations based on my and Cradil's strength and determined the result.

The final result—the sword started coming down again, slowly but steadily. I was filled with fear and despair.

Was this the end?

Was I going to die? Leaving Nanoha in this insane world?

I resisted the gradually closing sword and the despair that reached out from within me.

"Die-! Diiieeeee-!"

Cradil screamed in a shrill voice.

The killing intent that took the form of a dully shining sword came down centimeter by centimeter. Then finally, the sword tip reached my body—and slowly dug in…

At this moment, a gust of wind blew.

It was a gust of deep red and pure white wind.

"Huh…!?"

With this exclamation of surprise, the murderer and his sword were thrown high into the air. I stared speechlessly at the silhouette of the person who had appeared.

"…I'm not late… I'm not late…thank you, God…I'm not late…"

Her trembling voice sounded sweeter than the flapping wings of an angel. Her lips trembled violently as she collapsed onto her knees and looked at me.

"Alive…you're alive, right, Fate-chan…?"

"…yeah…I'm still alive…"

My voice sounded so weak that it surprised me. Nanoha nodded once and took out a pink crystal from her pouch, then put her left hand on my chest and shouted.

"Heal!"

The crystal broke and my HP bar filled up in an instant. After confirming my recovery, Nanoha whispered to me:

"…wait here. I'll take care of this quickly…"

Nanoha then stood up, drew her rapier elegantly, and started walking.

Her target Cradil was still preparing to pick himself off the ground. When he saw the person that was walking towards him his eyes grew wide.

"N-Nanoha-sama…h-how did you get here…? T-This, is, training, yes, there was an accident in the middle of training…"

Cradil bounced back up as if he had springs and attempted to form an excuse with his nervous voice. But before he could finish, Nanoha's right hand flashed and the tip of her sword tore Cradil's mouth. She didn't become a criminal since her opponent already had an orange cursor.

"Ahh!"

Cradil covered his mouth with his hand, leaned backwards, and froze for a moment. Then, as he righted himself, his eyes were full of a familiar anger.

"You bitch…that went way too far… Heh, well it's fine. I'll just take care of you as well…"

But he stopped mid-sentence; Nanoha had started attacking fiercely as soon as she fixed her grip on her sword. Her rapier drew countless lines of light as it slashed and stabbed towards Cradil at unbelievable speeds. Even I couldn't see the trajectory of her sword, and I was several levels above her. I just watched as the angel swung her sword almost as if she was dancing.

It was beautiful. Nanoha pushed her opponent back expressionlessly, her long chestnut hair flowing while sparks of anger enveloped her entire body; it was indescribably beautiful.

"Ah! Kaaaa!"

Cradil had already begun panicking, his sword swung about wildly without even landing a scratch on Nanoha. As his HP decreased noticeably from the yellow zone to the red danger area, Cradil finally threw his sword aside and screamed with both of his arms held up in the air.

"O-Okay! Okay! I'm sorry!"

He then went to his knees and begged.

"I-I'll leave the guild! I won't appear in front of you two ever again! So-"

Nanoha silently listened to his cries.

She raised her sword slowly and reversed her grip. Her thin arm tensed with nervousness, and then went up another couple of centimeters as it prepared to stab through Cradil. At that moment the murderer screamed even more loudly.

"Heeeek! I-I don't want to die-!"

The sword stopped as if it hit an invisible wall. Her thin body began to shake violently.

I could fully feel Nanoha's inner conflict, both her fear and her anger.

By what I knew, she had never killed anyone in this game. Since when a player is killed in this world they also die in the real world, PKing in this network game is equivalent to actual murder.

—Yeah. Stop, Nanoha. You shouldn't do that.

As I screamed this to myself, I also thought of the complete opposite at the same time.

—No, don't hesitate. That's what he's after.

My prediction became reality 0.1 seconds later.

"Ahahahaha!"

I wasn't sure when Cradil had picked his sword back up, but he suddenly swung it upwards with a scream.

Nanoha's rapier made a clanging sound and flew out of her right hand.

"Ah…!?"

As Nanoha exclaimed and lost her balance, a metallic shine flashed above her head.

"Sub-leader, you're still faaaaaaaaaaaarr too naive!"

With a shriek filled with madness, Cradil swung his sword down without hesitation, drawing a dark red line of light.

"Ahhhhhhh!"

This time, I was the one who had screamed. I kicked off from the ground with my right foot, which had just recovered from the paralysis, and flew a couple of meters before pushing Nanoha aside with my right hand while blocking Cradil's sword with my left.

Thump.

With this unpleasant sound, my left arm was severed from the elbow down. The body part loss icon flashed below the HP bar. While bloody red lines of light flowed from the cut on my left arm, my right hand straightened its fingers and-.

I stabbed my hand into the gap between Cradil's thick armor. It glowed yellow as it buried itself deep within Cradil's stomach.

I had successfully countered with the point-blank range skill «Embracer», which immediately eliminated the last twenty percent of Cradil's HP. His gaunt body shivered violently beside me, then completely lost all strength and sagged.

As his great sword fell onto the ground and clanged, he whispered into my ear:

"You…murderer…"

He sneered in a "kuku" sound.

Cradil's entire body shattered into numerous glass fragments. I was pushed back by the chill force of the dissipating polygons and fell backwards.

For a while, my exhausted, frozen mind registered only the sound of wind blowing.

Then I heard irregular footsteps stepping on the gravel. When I turned my gaze, I could see a fragile looking figure walking towards me with a hollow expression.

Nanoha walked shakily towards me with her head lowered, and then collapsed to her knees in front of me like a puppet with its strings cut. Although she reached out towards me with her right hand, she suddenly pulled it back before it could reach me.

"…I'm sorry…because of me…it's all because of me…"

Nanoha forced this out with a shaking voice and a grief-stricken expression. Tears rolled down from her large eyes and fell to the ground like sparkling gems. I barely managed to say something short with my dry throat:

"Nanoha…"

"I'm sorry… I…won't…meet Fate-chan…a…again."

I exerted myself to right my body back up, which was finally regaining its normal senses. My body was still filled with an unpleasant feeling because of the devastating damage I took, but I hugged Nanoha with both my right arm and my crippled left arm. Then, I covered her beautiful, cherry-colored lips with mine.

"…!"

Nanoha went rigid and tried to push me away, but I held her small body tightly with all the strength I had. It was without a doubt something that went against the manner violation prevention code. Right now a system message should have appeared in front of Nanoha, and if she pressed OK, I would be immediately teleported to the prison area of the Black Iron Castle.

But my arms showed no signs of loosening up. As I left Nanoha's lips, I passed her cheeks before burying my face in the curve of her neck. Then I whispered:

"My life belongs to you, Nanoha. So I'll use it for you. I'll stay with you until the end."

I pulled Nanoha in closer with the left arm that had the body part loss status imposed on it for three minutes. Nanoha took a trembling breath and then whispered in response:

"…I-I'll protect you as well. I'll protect you forever. So…"

She wasn't able to continue talking. So I listened to Nanoha's sobbing with our arms held tightly around each other.

The warmth of our bodies began to melt my frozen heart bit by bit.

OKAY AS SOME PEOLPLE SAID I CHANGED IT A LITTLE BIT AND WHILE WRITING I SOMETIMES GOT CONFUSED BETWEEN NANOHA AND ASUNA SO SORRY IF YOU GUYS HAD TROUBLE…..

REVIEWS PLEASE ….


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